I. General Situation of the Epidemics

In the 34th week of 2008 (from 0 a.m. on August 25 to 12 p.m. on August 31), 2,995 cases of 13 kinds of legally defined infectious diseases and 3 dead cases (namely one case of HIV/AIDS, one case of measles, and one case of hepatitis B) in 18 districts and counties across the city were reported. Among them, there are 1,345 cases of 9 types of class B infectious diseases, down 5.15％ over last week and down 40.83％ over the same period of last year. The top five categories of diseases with the highest incident rates are: dysentery (812 cases), tuberculosis (242 cases), hepatitis B (118 cases), syphilis (60 cases) and hepatitis C (35 cases); 1,650 cases of four types of class C infectious diseases were reported, down 14.6％ from the last week and down 32.24％ from the same period of last year. Moreover, cases of infectious diarrhea, hand-foot-mouth disease, epidemic parotitis, and acute hemorrhagic conjunctivitis amount to 1,650 with four types this week, taking up 55.09 % of the total number of legally defined infectious disease cases, down 32.24% over the same period of last year.

II. Analysis of the Major Epidemics

(1) Hand-foot-mouth disease
This week 176 cases were reported, down 30.43% from last week. The top five districts and counties with the most reported cases are: Fengtai, Chaoyang, Haidian, Tongzhou, and Changping, accounting for 64.2% of the total number. Those infected are mainly scattered-living children and kindergarten kids. They take up 89.77% of the reported patients. There is no clustering cases reported.

(2) Diarrhea
This week 812 cases are reported throughout the city, down 5.69% from last week and down 52.21% from the same period of last year. The top five districts and counties with the most reported cases are: Chaoyang, Fengtai, Haidian, Dongcheng and Changping, accounting for 56.9% of the total. Scattered-living children, cadres, students, housekeeping workers, retirees and unemployed people account for 74.51% of the reported patients.

(3) Major notices
As the new school term has begun, health authorities suggest all schools keep a close eye on drinking water and food safety and report problems to the government in time.

Diarrhea and respiratory tract diseases reach their peak in September; therefore, it is necessary for public health authorities at all levels to make more efforts to promote precautionary measures against diarrhea and respiratory tract diseases and strengthen the monitoring of these diseases so that they can be found, treated, controlled, and prevented from spreading and escalating into epidemic as soon as possible. Meanwhile, citizens should pay more attention to food hygiene and visit doctors immediately when symptoms of diarrhea and respiratory tract diseases become obvious.