Abstract: Objective To understand the epidemiological characteristics of the death cases of hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in Yunnan in 2009. Methods All the death cases were diagnosed clinically, which were laboratory confirmed, The case survey was conducted by epidemiologists using unified questionnaire provide by China CDC. Results A total of 15 062 HFMD cases were reported in Yunnan in 2009,13 cases were fatal. The case fatality was 0.086%. The deaths mainly occurred from May to August and were distributed in central part of Yunnan. More deaths occurred in females than in males with the ratio of 0.625 ∶ 1.The death cases (9) in age group of 0-1 year accounted for 69.23% of the total, all the death cases in this age group were children outside child care settings. The main clinical symptoms of death cases were fever, rash, breathing difficulty and rapid disease progress. Most cases died within 4 days after onset. The positive rate of RT-PCR detection was 72.73%. Conclusion The prevention and control of HFMD should be conducted in the way of early finding, early reporting, early diagnosis, early treatment and early isolation. The key measures to reduce death are to identify severe case rapidly and accurately, and give symptomatic treatment.