Etiological analysis of HFMD in Linhai in 2010-2011

Objective To understand the etiological features of HFMD in Linhai from 2010 to 2011.Methods Throat-swab specimens collected periodically from clinically diagnosed HFMD cases in sentinel hospitals were tested for enterovirus(EV)RNA by real-time RT-PCR.Results Out of 157 specimens tested,112 were EV positive with the positive rate of 71.34%.Among those positive samples,there were 28 found to be EV71 positive(25.89%)and 33 to be coxA16 positive(29.46%).Most of HFMD patients were under the age of 5,which accounted for 95.54% cases.The positive rates of EV71 and coxA16 were 17.44% and 24.42% in 2010 and 18.31% and 16.90% in 2011 with no significant differences between 2010 abd 2011.Also the positive rate of EV was higher among male cases compared to that of female ones.Severe cases were all EV positive.A typical dynamic change of etiological feature was spotted from 2010 to 2011.Conclusions EV71 and coxA16 were the major pathogens of HFMD in Linhai city.Children under 5 were more vulnerable to EV infection.EV71 was the major pathogen of severe HFMD.