Characteristics of etiology and epidemiology of hand,foot and mouth disease in Jinan City,2010

Objective To study the characteristics on etiology and epidemiology of hand,foot and mouth disease(HFMD) in Jinan,2010,and provide scientific basis for prevention and control of this disease.Methods Specimens including stool and pharynx swabs were collected from 808 clinically-diagnosed cases of HFMD(including 40 severe cases) in Jinan,2010,and the RT-PCR analysis was used with universal primers within 5'untranslated region of enterovirus and VP1 region of coxsackievirus A16(CoxA16) and enterovirus 71(EV71) to assay enteroviruses in children with HFMD.The VP1 genes of EV71 from EV71 positive cases were amplified by RT-PCR and sequences were analyzed.Results The positive rate of enterovirus was 71.91%(581/808).Of the 581 cases,190(32.70%) were positive for EV71,267(45.96%) were positive for CoxA16,and 124(21.34%) were negative for both EV71 and CoxA16.The major pathogen of 40 severe HFMD were EV71(75.00%).In positive cases,the majority was male;the age of most cases was less than 4 years old(85.15%),especially in 2-3 years old group(28.34%);and the high-occurrence season of HFMD was from April to May(36.14%)in Jinan,2010.Gene sequence analysis for 7 strains of EV71 PCR positive products presented as the same C4b.Conclusions The major pathogens of HFMD cases are EV71 and CoxA16 in Jinan.Children less than 4 years old are susceptible to HFMD,and severe cases of HFMD were mainly caused by EV71.