[An investigation on acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) cases in some provinces with high risk of poliomyelitis of China]

Abstract

In the mid Jun, 1994, a study team organized by MOPH investigated AFP cases in 10 provinces with high prevalence of poliomyelitis (polio). Twenty prefectures and ten counties were selected randomly from each of 10 provinces and relevant prefectures. The team identified 681 AFP cases under 15 years old from 45 hospitals at prefecture level and 13 hospitals at country level based on hospital records from cases occurred during 1991-1994. AFP, Polio, Non-polio AFP and GBS (Guillian-Barre Syndrome) cases aged from 0-14 years scattered around 101 counties (cities) among target population and their average incidences by year were 1.04, 0.48, 0.57 and 0.31 (per 10(5) respectively. Noticingly, the incidence of polio had reduced significantly since 1991, and its proportion among AFP was also reducing from first place yearly since 1991. In addition, over 95% of the polio cases were concentrated in the 4 year olds which indicated that the target population for surveillance and prevention should mainly be focusing on 0-4 year olds. As the incidence of non-polio AFP has been used as a current sensitive index of surveillance system, we noticed that the incidence rates had been significantly different from various regions. According to the analytic data, we recommend that "Rate of non-polio AFP in children 0-14 years of age greater than 1/10(5)" might be a better and more sensitive index for surveillance program in China.