[Analysis on hepatitis B cases reported from surveillance points in China, 2019]

Area of Science:

• Hepatology
• Public Health Surveillance
• Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Background:

• Hepatitis B remains a significant public health concern globally.
• Accurate and complete disease reporting is essential for effective public health interventions.
• The National Notifiable Disease Reported System (NNDRS) in China is a key platform for monitoring infectious diseases like hepatitis B.

Purpose of the Study:

• To characterize hepatitis B cases reported via China's NNDRS in 2019.
• To evaluate the quality and completeness of hepatitis B case reporting.
• To identify areas for improvement in the national surveillance system.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of hepatitis B case data from NNDRS in 2019.
• Verification of reported cases against diagnostic criteria (WS 299-2008).
• Comparison of reported versus verified clinical types using Kappa test to assess consistency and analyze discrepancies.

Main Results:

• A total of 64,686 hepatitis B cases were reported, predominantly chronic (92.4%).
• The overall consistency rate for clinical types between reported and verified cases was 58.8% (Kappa=0.15).
• Inconsistencies were largely due to incomplete reporting card information (94.5%), particularly for cases with unverified clinical types.

Conclusions:

• Hepatitis B diagnosis within China's surveillance system has improved.
• Significant improvements are needed in the completeness of reporting cards submitted to the NNDRS.
• Enhancing data quality is vital for accurate hepatitis B epidemiology and control efforts.