Post-SARS, infection rates in China have steadied, but fast-growing and common infections now need attention

Following the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in 2003, China stepped up its prevention and control methods for all infectious diseases, and rates of infection have levelled off since 2009. However, better measures are needed to tackle the most common diseases – including hand, foot and mouth disease, hepatitis B, and tuberculosis – and those that are rapidly increasing, such as hydatid disease, hepatitis C, syphilis, and HIV. A new study, conducted by researchers at Zhejiang University, China and published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, is the first to report long-term infectious disease trends in China since the SARS outbreak and tracks 45 diseases over ten years in roughly 1.3 billion people, with data from the national notifiable infectious diseases report database. From 2004 to 2013, there were almost 55 million infectious disease cases and more than 132500 deaths as a result. Overall, the incidence of cases per year increased between...