Epidemiological Study On Hemorrhagic Fever With Renal Syndrome Using Geographic Information System And Remote Sensing Techniques

The study objectives are to visualize the spatial distribution of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) and its serotypes, to analyze the association between HFRS incidence and geographical environment factors and consequently to provide the scientific foundation for taking effective prevention measures and controlling the prevalence of HFRS.The spatial distributions of HFRS and its serotypes in China were characterized by using special methods of geographic information system(GIS) such as spatial analysis and geostatistical analysis. At the same time, the geographical environment information was collected and extracted from remote sensing (RS) data, the association between HFRS serotypes and proportion of main animal hosts as well as geographical environment factors were analyzed. Furthermore, the temporal and spatial characteristics were investigated using spatial cluster analysis (scan statistics) and tracking analysis.Results showed that HFRS foci were mainly presented in four regions , and HFRS incidence or serotypes were correlated with normalized difference vegetation index(NDVI). Maps of HFRS serotype distribution and the proportion of host animals were established using GIS technique. Epidemic types classified by cluster analysis of proportion of main animal hosts of surveillance sites were consistent with serotypes of HFRS patients. HFRS patients in Haidian district of Beijing were not distributed randomly, and the temporal and spatial clusters were obvious.This study indicates that it is feasible to introduce GIS and RS techniques to epidemiological studies on HFRS. These techniques play an essential role compared with common analysis methods in data management and analysis. Spatial interpolation technique provides a optional methods for prediction of epidemic areas according to information obtained from sampled sites in epidemiological studies.