Epidemiological situation of natural focal infections in the Volgograd region in 2023

Objective: analysis of epizootiological and epidemiological aspects of natural focal infections, namely plague, tularemia, HFRS, West Nile fever, Crimean hemorrhagic fever, Ixodic tick-borne borreliosis, Cu fever, leptospirosis and rabies, in the Volgograd region over 10 months in 2023. Materials and methods: the article analyzes the epidemiological manifestations of natural focal infections (NFI) in the Volgograd region for 10 months of 2023. The work uses official statistical data from institutions of Rospotrebnadzor of the Volgograd region on NFI for 2023. The main research method is epidemiological analysis. Results: the numbers of small mammals, potential carriers of NFI, on the territory of the Volgograd region in the 2023 season were within the same indicators of the previous year (SIPY), while the number of ticks in the spring-summer period was higher than the SIPY, but in the fall the number of arthropods in stationary points was lower than in previous seasons. The number of mosquitoes carrying arbovirus infections exceeded the long-term average. When studying environmental objects for the presence of markers of NFI pathogens, a slight decrease in the proportion of positive samples was noted compared to SIPY for all nosological forms. Over the 10 months of this year, there has been a deterioration in the epidemiological situation in the Volgograd region for several infections compared to the same period in 2022. There were 18 cases of West Nile fever (WNF), 10 cases of ixodid tick-borne borreliosis (ITB), and 6 cases of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS). No patients with plague, tularemia, rabies, leptospirosis, Crimean hemorrhagic fever (CHF) and Q fever were identified. Conclusion: the presence of natural foci of dangerous infectious diseases of varying degrees of activity on the territory of the Volgograd region requires constant monitoring and an adequate response to changes in the foci in order to prevent complications of the epidemiological situation due to NFI.