Epidemiology of hand foot and mouth disease in Hebei, 2010-2015

Objective To analyze epidemiological characteristics of hand foot and mouth disease(HFMD) in Hebei province during 2010-2015 and provide evidence for the prevention and control of HFMD in Hebei. Methods Descriptive epidemiological methods were used to analyze the HFMD cases reported from National Notifiable Disease Surveillance System and etiological detection results from Regional HFMD Laboratory Net. Results A total of 444 825 HFMD cases were reported in Hebei during this period,including 3 643 severe cases and 157 deaths,with an annual average incidence of 102.34/100 000. The annual incidence peak was during May-June. The majority of cases were distributed in Baoding, Cangzhou and Shijiazhuang, accounting for 50.54%of the total cases.Most cases occurred in children under 5 years old, especially in children aged 1-4 years. More cases occurred in males than in females, and most cases were children outside child care settings. Among the 34 069 cases tested for enterovirus(EV) nucleic acid, 21 645(63.53%) were EV positive, the proportion of EV71 was 38.82%. Among the severe and death cases, those caused by EV71 accounted for 80.44% and 92.31%, respectively. Conclusion During 2010-2015, HFMD had a wide distribution in Hebei with obvious seasonality and geographic differences, the main pathogen was EV71,and the majority of severe cases and deaths were caused by EV71.