Japanese Encephalitis Outbreak, Yuncheng, China, 2006

摘要

To the Editor: Japanese encepha-litis (JE) epidemics have occurred only in Asia. More than 50,000 cases of JE with ≈10,000 deaths have been report-ed since 1998 (1,2). The People's Re-public of China reported 5,104 cases and 214 deaths in 2005. Most of these deaths occurred in infants (3,4). During July and August 2006, an outbreak of viral encephalitis oc-curred in Yuncheng, Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China. A total of 66 cases (1.32/100,000 population) were reported, including 19 deaths (case-fatality rate 28.8%). The cases had a widespread distribution over 9 counties and involved 37 towns and 61 administrative villages. The ratio of male-to-female patients was 1:0.89. A distinct clinical feature of this out-break was the age distribution. More than 86% of the patients were >30 years of age, with only 10% of pa-tients 50 years of age (5).