Major emerging and re-emerging zoonoses in China: a matter of global health and socioeconomic development for 1.3 billion

Abstract

Emerging and re-emerging zoonoses are a significant public health concern and cause considerable socioeconomic problems globally. The emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1, avian influenza H7N9, and severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS), and the re-emergence of rabies, brucellosis, and other zoonoses have had a significant effect on the national economy and public health in China, and have affected other countries. Contributing factors that continue to affect emerging and re-emerging zoonoses in China include social and environmental factors and microbial evolution, such as population growth, urbanization, deforestation, livestock production, food safety, climate change, and pathogen mutation. The Chinese government has devised new strategies and has taken measures to deal with the challenges of these diseases, including the issuing of laws and regulations, establishment of disease reporting systems, implementation of special projects for major infectious diseases, interdisciplinary and international cooperation, exotic disease surveillance, and health education. These strategies and measures can serve as models for the surveillance and response to continuing threats from emerging and re-emerging zoonoses in other countries.

Keywords: China; Contributing factors; Control strategies and measures; Emerging zoonoses; Re-emerging zoonoses.

Figure 1

Reported cases of the four major zoonotic diseases – rabies, Japanese encephalitis, schistosomiasis japonica, and brucellosis – in China during 2003–2011. The data were derived from epidemic information of notifiable infectious diseases in China. The brucellosis cases are expressed as 10% of the real incidences, and the cases of the other three diseases are expressed as the actual incidences. The number of cases of schistosomiasis japonica was not available for the year 2003, because the disease was first considered a notifiable disease in 2004.