Community-based comprehensive measures to prevent severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome, China

Abstract

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is an emerging disease caused by the SFTS virus (SFTSV) of the family Bunyaviridae. Since the virus was first isolated in 2009, it has become widespread in China, with an increasing number of cases year on year. Although the disease has been researched extensively in past years, there are still no effective measures to suppress the epidemic situation. This article reports a pilot study of comprehensive measures, including health education and risk communication, weed removal, livestock management, and tick control, to prevent this emerging disease in an endemic region of China. The density of ticks decreased dramatically month by month after acaricides were sprayed in the areas surrounding recreational and agricultural settings. The number of SFTS cases and villages involved declined in the years after the integrated measures were applied. Comprehensive measures, especially community-based tick control, may be a promising means of preventing SFTS in endemic regions.

Keywords: Comprehensive measures; Effectiveness; Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome; Tick control.