Surveillance of Enterovirus Type 71 in Shenzhen in 2001

Objective To explore the enterovirus type 71 infection in Shenzhen. Methods EV71 RNA was tested by RT-PCR in 79 fecal samples of infants with hand foot and mouth disease. Results The positive rate of EV71 was 30 38% (24/79). There were EV71 infections in Shenzhen and Dongguan adjoined with Shenzhen. EV71 infection tended to peak in October. Children below the age of 5 was EV71 main target. EV71 could cause many kinds of diseases including central neurologic disease, in which the ratio of hand foot mouth disease was high (62.5%).There was no statistics different between males and females.Conclusions There were EV71 infections in Shenzhen,and it was necessary to surveillance of EV71,especially for patients who had neurologic disease.