OBJECTIVE

To analyze the pathogen and characteristics of the serum types of enterovirus of hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) in the summer, 2009.

METHODS

Both throat swab and herpes fluids were taken respectively from 174 children with HFMD in the outpatient infection during April to September, 2009. Anti-Cox A16 and anti-EV71 IgMs in the serum were detected with ELISA. And RNA were extracted from each sample followed with real-time fluorescence quantitative RT-PCR kits with three reagents: universal enterovirus primer, Coxsackievirus A16 (CA16) primer and enterovirus 71 (EV71) primer. Parts of positive samples were sequenced and analyzed.

RESULTS

(1) EV genes were detected from 167 cases, of which ,112 cases were positive for CA16 and 46 were positive for EV71. CA16: EV71 was 2.43: 1. (2) There were 51 cases with CA16 IgM positive and 25 cases with EV71 IgM positive in the early collected sera, and in the later samples, 98 cases with CA16 IgM positive and 32 cases with EV71 IgM positive. (3)The nucleotide homologies were 88.7%-98.5% of VP1 gene among CA16. The nucleotide homologies were 94.9% - 99.7% of VP1 gene among EV71, and were 92.1% - 95.3% with C4 subtype.

CONCLUSION

The mainly pathogen causing HFMD in children in the summer, 2009 were CA16 and EV71. EV71 infection, mainly C4 subtype, was highly elevated according to the earlier reported. Real-time RT-PCR is more appropriate than the serological test.