7.1 Basic Situation

The monitoring scale and items in 2002 were the same as that in 2001, including Chongqing, Wanzhou district of Chongqing, Fengdu County and Yichang of Hubei province. The total number of people monitored was 469,759, 40,196 less than that in 2001, which was mainly caused by the adjustment of monitoring points. The gender ratio of male and female was 1.03:1.

In 2002, there were altogether 374 medical institutions at various levels in monitoring points, 45 less than that in 2001, mainly caused by the emigration of people from the Three Gorges reservoir area. The total number of medical people of various types at different level was 4404, 267 more than that in 2001. There were 3346 hospital beds in the medical institutions, 302 more than that in 2001.

7.2 Statistics of Lives

7.2.1 Birth and death

In 2002, 3345 people were born within the monitoring range, among which 1709 were males and 1636 were females. The birthrate was 7.12‰, a slight decrease compared with 2001. 2754 people died with the mortality rate of 586.25/100 thousand, among whom 1502 were male with mortality rate of 646.07/100 thousand, and 1252 were female with mortality rate of 527.64/100 thousand. Compared with 2001, the total mortality rate was decreased by 2.53% and the mortality rate of male and female decreased by 3.41% and 2.43%, respectively. 53 babies died with 30 male babies and 23 female babies. The mortality rate of babies was 15.85‰, decreased by 1.04‰ comparing with 2001, the same as the baby mortality rate in the country.

7.2.2 Analysis of death cause

According to the classification standard for ICD-9 diseases, the following ranked the first five diseases causing people's death: the circulatory system diseases (33.4%), malignant tumor (20.1%), respiratory system disease (17.0%), damnification and poisoning (12.8%), and unidentified diseases (4.7%). The death cases caused by the above five types of diseases accounted for 88.0% of the total death, indicating this five types of diseases were the major causes for the death of people in the Three Gorges reservoir area. Compared with 2001, the diseased exchanging ranks were malignant tumor and respiratory system diseases, and the alimentary system diseases and unidentified diseases. The percentage of people died from circulatory system disease increased slightly and the percentage of people died from respiratory system diseases decreased a little.

7.3 Monitoring of Diseases

7.3.1 Monitoring of infectious diseases

In 2002, 3414 cases of infectious diseases were reported from different monitoring points with no death case. Among those, one type of legal category A infectious disease was reported with 4 cases (cholera), 15 types of category B infectious disease were reported with 2371 cases. The ratio of the total disease incidence of category A and B was 404.70/100 thousand. 5 types of category C disease were reported with 1039 cases, the ratio of disease incidence was 177.05/100 thousand. Compared with 2001, the incidence ratio of category A and B infectious disease decreased by 9.8%, and the incidence ratio of category C infectious disease decreased by 23.3%.

In 2002, the order of the disease incidence of the first five category B infectious diseases was: pulmonary tuberculosis (128.48/100 thousand), virus hepatitis (101.56/100 thousand), dysentery (99.51/100 thousand), gonorrhea (48.22/100 thousand), measles (15.17/100 thousand). Compared with 2001, the order of the first four category B infectious diseases remained the same. However, the disease ranked as the fifth changed from syphilis to measles.

Compared with 2001, the incidence of alimentary system disease increased and ranked as the first. The incidence of respiratory system disease decreased obviously. The disease incidence caused by natural disease source remained at low level. The newly added category A infectious disease was cholera, category B infectious diseases were Aids and HIV recessive infection. Aids and HIV recessive infection were reported for the first time in the monitoring area. The number of cases of reported disease incidence of five types of category B infectious disease increased. The order was: scarlet fever (155.6%), measles (98.3%), malaria (70.4%), typhoid fever (52.9%), dysentery (7.9%). The cases of other types of diseases decreased. Among those, the number of cases of gonorrhea, syphilis and pulmonary tuberculosis were decreased obviously.

In 2002, there were reported cases of infectious disease every month from monitoring sites. From April to October, there were more than 200 cases of category A and B infectious diseases. However, the peak was not so obvious, which indicated the incidence of infectious disease scattered and there was no outbreak of epidemics. Two peak periods for incidence of category C infectious disease appeared in June and September. The major cause was the outbreak of urticaria and conjunctivitis epidemics and the increase of the cases of infectious diarrhea in summer.

7.3.2 Monitoring of endemic diseases

The monitoring results of the endemic diseases showed that the endemic fluorine poisoning only occurred in Fengjie County. The positive reaction rate reached to 32.25%. The monitoring points were not hit by the paragoniasis epidemics. The cases of endemic thyroid enlargement were found in four monitoring points. However, the intensity still belonged to a rather low level. The rate of thyroid enlargement incidence of children from 8 to 10 was 6.0%-13.2%, less than 20.0%.

7.3.3 Serum test

The antiserum tests of 200 samples of the epidemic hemorrhagic fever were tested in 2002, with positive rate of 3.5%. The antiserum tests of 197 samples of encephalitis B were conducted, with positive rate of 17.3%. The antiserum tests of 571 samples of leptospirosis were conducted, with positive rate of 22.4%. Compared with monitoring results in 1998 and 2000, the antiserum level of encephalitis B and leptosirosis decreased a little bit. The antiserum level of epidemic hemorrhagic fever remained low. With the water storage in Three Gorges Reservoir and the migration of host animals in the reservoir area, the monitor of animal infectious source and the natural epidemic source disease should be enforced.

7.4 Monitoring of Biological Media

In 2002, anti-mouse campaign carried out for the cleanup of the reservoir made the density of indoor and outdoor mice lower than that of 2001. The density of indoor mice decreased from 2.8% to 2.1% and the outdoor from 4.9% to 3.8%.

In indoor areas, the brown mice were the superior kind, accounting for 65.9%. The small mice ranked the second, accounting for 24.4%. Besides, there were also yellow-breast mice and the black strip rats occasionally invading from outdoor. In the field, the small insectivora were the dominant kind, accounting for 62.5%. The brown mice and black strip rats ranked as the second, accounting for 18.1% and 10.9%, respectively. As the host animals for epidemic hemorrhagic fever and leptospirosis, the percentage of black strip rats remained at low level.

In 2002, the leptospirosis cultured in the kidney of animals in each monitoring points showed negative response. The black strip rats were not caught in the monitoring point of Yichang. The positive rate of epidemic hemorrhagic fever tested from 13 lung samples of other kinds of mice was as high as 15.38%. The attention should be highly paid to this situation.

In 2002, the density of mosquito in the livestock sty was higher than that in door in each monitoring point. The total density of mosquitoes in the livestock sty was 135.77/room·manhour, lower than that in 2001, which was 178.1/room·manhour. The total density of mosquitoes in the room was 41.98/room·manhour, lower than that of 2001, which was 69.0/room·manhour.

The peak period for the density of indoor mosquitoes was the first half of June in Chongqing and Yichang, and the first half of July in Fengdu and Wanzhou. The peak period for the density of mosquitoes in the livestock sty was the second half of June in Chongqing and the second half of July in Fengdu. The peak period in Wanzhou and Yichang was the first half of July.

The armigers subalbatus were the dominant kind both in door and in the livestock sty, accounting for 49.1% and 50.8%, respectively. The culicine mosquitoes ranked the second, accounting for 30.5% and 18.1%, respectively.

Chief Compilation Institution
China National Environmental Monitoring Center
Compilation Members
Office of Assisting Three Gorges Construction, Hubei Province
Hubei Provincial Statistics Bureau
Chongqing Municipal Statistics Bureau
Chongqing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Center
Geological Calamity Monitoring Center in the Three Gorges Reservoir
Area, Ministry of Territory and Resources
Environmental Protection Center of Ministry of Communication
Water Conservation Committee of the Yangtze River
Office of the Fishery Resources Management of the Yangtze River
Agriculture Ecological and Environmental Protection Station in Hubei Province
The Yangtze River Aquatic Culture Research Institute of Ministry of Agriculture
China Academy of Preventive Physics
Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Center of State Forestry Administration
Research Institute of Aquatic Biological Resources, Chinese Academy of Science
Nanjing Soil Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science
Oceangraphy Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Science
Research Institute for Measurement and Earth Physics, Chinese Academy of Science
Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment Research, Chinese Academy of Science
Institute of Botany Science, Chinese Academy of Science
National Climate Center
China Seismological Bureau
Department of Reservoir Management, Three Gorges Project
Construction Committee of the State Council
China Yangtze Three Gorges Project Development Corporation
Translation Institution
Department of International Cooperation, State Environmental Protection Administration
Approval Institution
State Environmental Protection Administration