Factors influencing the number of rabies cases in children in China.

,To understand the epidemic situation and factors influencing rabies cases in children in China, we obtained an overview of the current epidemic based on individual data of rabies cases in children and a descriptive analysis was carried on the prevalence and related factors. The results showed that the rabies cases in children accounted for 21.3% of the total number of rabies cases in China, 97.0% of these cases occurred in rural areas, they were mainly caused by dogs (81.5%), and were primarily level III exposure (47.7%). More than half of the cases were not treated with wound care, vaccination rate was extremely low (15.7%), and only 5.9% of cases were injected with antibodies. Furthermore, 25.4% of cases adopted incorrect treatments such as extruding bleed and wound closure, cases vaccinated with 5 injections accounted for only 22.5%. In conclusion, the prevalence of rabies cases in children in China remains a serious concern, the number and immune status of dogs in rural areas, and knowledge of rabies by risk populations should be considered in future rabies prevention and control programs. Rabies is an acute zoonotic infectious disease caused by Rabies virus (RABV). Rabies prevalence is most serious in Asia and Africa, resulting in about 55,000 deaths every year [1] . Children is the high risk group of rabies, in India about 35% of human rabies cases came from children [2] ; for patients who receiving post-exposure prophylaxis and treatment in Asia and Africa, children under the age of 16 accounted for 30%-50% [1] . Children act as deliver of human civilization, whose healthy growth also reflects human civilization, protecting children from the danger of rabies is the responsibility of human beings. In China, the national rabies surveillance system was implemented in 2005, and the national statutory notifiable communicable diseases reporting system started from 2004, based on these surveillance and case reporting systems it is possible to have deep investigation on disease epidemiology and the related factors. From the data of human rabies surveillance in China, there are hundreds of children died of rabies every year. In order to understand the reasons of high prevalence of rabies in children in China and explore the effective measures to protect children's health and life, avoiding the harm of rabies, we collected the data of children rabies cases under the age of 15 and analyzed the epidemic situation and influencing factors of rabies in children in China, to provide the preventive suggestions, hoping to arouse the whole society attention to rabies in children. The focus of this study was children under the age of 15. The epidemic situation and individual data of rabies cases in children were collected through the national statutory notifiable communicable diseases reporting system of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. A total of 5 088 rabies cases were reported in children during 2003-2012 and detailed individual case data were collected from 287 of these cases. Analysis Methods To analyze rabies cases in children, the epidemiology, distribution, exposure history and post-exposure prophylaxis and treatment, as well as the clinical characteristics were considered. Excel 2007 and SPSS 16.0 were used for the management and statistical analysis of data, MapInfo 7.0 was used for creating the map presented in this work. Based on the results of these analyses, the efficacy of existing prevention and control measures for preventing children rabies