Enterovirus nucleic acid detection and analysis on epidemiologic characteristics of hand-foot-month disease in Shenzhen area during 2015-2016

Objective This study was to analysis the epidemiologic characteristics of hand-foot-month (HFMD) in Shenzhen during 2015-2016, to provide reference for the prevention and treatment of HFMD. Methods 7 758 statistical data from Shenzhen children's hospital clinical lab during 2015-2016 was included. We used real time fluorescent reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) to detect enterovirus general (EV), enterovirus 71 (EV71) and coxsackievirus A group 16 (CoxA16), and analyzed the age, sex and epidemic time of the patients. Results In 2015 and 2016, the positive rate of EV was 67.19%(2679/3987) and 52.61%(1 984/3 771) respectively, with statistically significant difference (χ2=71.84, P<0.05). The radio of male to female children was 1.91∶1(1 757/922) and 1.83∶1 (1 283/701) in 2015 and 2016, with statistically significant difference (P<0.05). The age of the children was <5 years old, accounting for more than 90% of the total number of patients. April to July and September were the two peaks of HFMD. The enterovirus of hand foot and mouth disease in Shenzhen was dominated by other enteroviruses (more than 82% of the total number of patients). With the increase of age, the proportion of EV71 in children with severe hand and foot was increasing, and the proportion of other enteroviruses was decreasing. Conclusions Vaccination is one of the important measures of HFMD control. It's beneficial for the diagnosis and treatment of HFMD to collected epidemiologic characteristics data about HFMD in Shenzhen. Key words: Hand, foot and mouth disease/VI; Enterovirus/GE; Epidemiologic studies