Biomedical Research

Objectives: This study tries to analyse the epidemiologic, etiologic Characteristics and Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD), as well as its correlation with meteorological factors.

Methods: The epidemiological data of HFMD was retrieved from the Hainan Center for Disease Control and Prevention for retrospective analysis. Feces of severe patients and randomly mild patients were collected for enterovirus detection by RT-PCR. Meteorological data including temperature, barometric pressure and amount of precipitation and wind speed of Western Hainan province were collected. Univariate analysis and multivariate linear regression analysis were used to determine the relationship between meteorological factors and the incidence of HFMD.

Results: A total of 13133 cases were identified in West of Hainan province from January, 2010 to December, 2016. A majority of the patients (97.3%) aged under 5 years old with an incidence of 123.5/100 000. The incidence of HFMD showed a significant increase in spring and reached the peak between spring and summer, and decreased at the end of summer. Male occupied about 66.6% of total patient and severe cases accounts for 2.1%. Pathogen analysis of 989 cases showed that Coxsackie A (CV-A), enterovirus 71 (EV71) accounts for 87.7% of all cases. Spearman rank correlation demonstrated that the incidence rate of HFMD had a significant relationship with temperature (rs=0.895, P<0.001), barometric pressure (rs=-0.731, P=0.007), amount of precipitation (rs=0.881, P<0.001). However, the multivariate linear regression analysis only confirmed statistical significance of temperature and HFMD.

Conclusions: The epidemiological characteristics of HFMD patients in West of Hainan province is similar with the whole situation of china. The type of CV-A and EV71 are the major pathogen causing HFMD. Temperature probably is an independent risk factor for the incidence of HFMD.

Author(s): Zhang Suling, Wang Xiaofeng
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