The Dynamics of the Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease Epidemic from 2008 to 2016 in Zhenjiang City, China

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) epidemic in Zhenjiang, China from 2008 to 2016. Materials & methods: A total of 37,202 HFMD cases were investigated and 3707 nasopharyngeal swabs were detected for enterovirus RNA using RT-quantitative PCR. Results: We first reported a mixed pattern of HFMD seasonal epidemic with a combination of single-peak and two-peak patterns in alternate years, and the occurrence of sporadic and epidemic outbreaks of HFMD in kindergartens in Zhenjiang. Children younger than 4 years of age were highly vulnerable to HFMD, and home children and boys had higher risk to develop severe HFMD than nursery children and girls, respectively. Among tested samples, 1709 (46.1%) were detected as enterovirus RNA positive. Conclusion: This study first presents the dynamic of the HFMD epidemic in Zhenjiang from 2008 to 2016.

Keywords:

• enterovirus
• hand, foot and mouth disease
• HFMD
• seasonal epidemic
• sporadic and epidemic outbreaks
• Zhenjiang

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at: www.tandfonline.com/doi/suppl/10.2217/fmb-2018-0063

Author contributions

L Mao and C Zhang conceived and designed the study. L Mao, J Wu, L Shen,J Gu, Z Yuan, J Chen and X Zou collected the case data and conducted experiments. X Fu and C Zhang analyzed and interpreted the data. X Fu, L Mao and C Zhang wrote the manuscript. All authors have read and approved the contents of the final manuscript.

Acknowledgements

We thank Y Hu and Y Li at Pathogen Discovery and Big Data Center, Institut Pasteur of Shanghai (IPS), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for their valuable evaluation and suggestions. We also thank Y Mu at CAS-MPG Partner Institute for Computational Biology, Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, CAS, Y Ma and Y Li at IPS, CAS for their technical assistance.

Financial & competing interests disclosure

C Zhang was supported by the TOTAL foundation. L Mao was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81601751), Jiangsu Province Medical Talents Program and Jiangsu Province “333” Project (BRA2017144). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical disclosure

The study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Affiliated People's Hospital, Jiangsu University. Informed consents were obtained from all subjects. In this study, all data analyzed were anonymized.

Additional information

Funding

C Zhang was supported by the TOTAL foundation. L Mao was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81601751), Jiangsu Province Medical Talents Program and Jiangsu Province “333” Project (BRA2017144). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed