Analysis of Relative Information About 30 Pneumonia of Unknown Origin Cases from 2004 to 2007 in Hunan Province

Objective To analyze the relative information about 30 pneumonia of unknown origin cases from 2004 to 2007 in Hunan Province,to find the problems of surveillance,and to provide scientific evidences for improving the surveillance.Method Descriptive epidemiological study was applied.Results The range of time interval of "onset first seeing doctor" was from 0 day to 6 days after they were ill,and the median was 1 day.The number of hospitals where the patients went to see doctor was from 1 to 7.The range of time interval of "onset making a diagnosis as pneumonia of unknown origin case was from 1 day to 33 days after they were ill,and the median was 7.5 days.Six cases were diagnosed as pneumonia of unknown origin cases in the second-level hospitals,and 24 cases were in the third-level ones,the ratios of correct diagnosis as pneumonia of unknown origin cases were 24.0% and 82.8%,the ratio of third-level hospitals was higher than that of second-level ones(χ2=16.47,P=0.00).The hospital reported to the local CDC and/or the local bureau of public health at the day when the case was diagnosed as pneumonia of unknown origin case,but the first report was by phone not by internet,and only 11 cases were reported by internet finally.The time interval of "onset excluded diagnosis" of 20 cases which were excluded from SARS and human infection with avian influenza virus was from 4 days to 53 days after they were ill,and the median was 11 days,but 16 cases were unknown-etiological diagnosed.Conclusions It is very important to find 3 human cases with infected avian influenza virus for carrying on the surveillance of pneumonia of unknown origin cases in Hunan Province.But there are many questions and difficulties,such as the training for the clinicians especially in the low-level hospitals are not carried out well,the low-level specialist groups do not really make an excluding diagnosis.The results suggest that it is necessary to enhance the training for clinicians,improve the test ability of the hospitals and CDCs,and make scientific and reasonable response after finding the case.