Etiologic analysis of hand, foot, and mouth disease in a sentinel surveillance hospital in Guangzhou City in 2017-2021 / 公共卫生与预防医学

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate etiologic characteristics of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) in a sentinel hospital in Guangzhou from 2017 to 2021, and to provide a scientific basis for the prevention and control of HFMD. Methods Descriptive epidemiologic methods were used to analyze the etiologic characteristics of mild cases of HMFD during 2017-2021. Results A total of 1 633 specimens of mild cases of HMFD were collected from 2017 to 2021. The total enterovirus (EV) positive rate was 78.41%, among which the positive rates of the main pathogen Cox A6, Cox A16, Cox A10, and EV71 were 40.83%, 17.68%, 6.13%, and 1.62%, respectively. The total positive rate of enteroviruses and the positive rate of enteroviruses of all types in each year were statistically different (P<0.001). In 2017-2021, the prevalence of HFMD in Guangzhou was mainly Cox A6, followed by Cox A16 which had the highest positive rate in 2018 (24.62%). The positive rate of EV71 decreased year by year. Cox A6 was highly prevalent from June to December every year, while the detection rate of Cox A16 was high from April to August every year. The positive detection rate of EV71 was high from January to May in 2017 and low from 2018 to 2021, with no epidemic peak. Conclusion From 2017 to 2021, the main pathogen of HMFD in Guangzhou is Cox A6, not EV71 or CoxA16, which suggests that it is of great significance to strengthen the monitoring of epidemic trend of HFMD for the prevention and control of HFMD.