Bednarska Natalia G, Smith Sue, Bardsley Megan, Loveridge Paul, Byford Rachel, Elson William H, Hughes Helen E, de Lusignan Simon, Todkill Daniel, Elliot Alex J
Real-time Syndromic Surveillance Team, Field Services, UK Health Security Agency, Birmingham, UK.
Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford, OxfordUK.
Epidemiol Infect. 2025 Jan 13;153:e22. doi: 10.1017/S095026882400181X.
Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a contagious communicable disease, with a high incidence in children aged under 10 years. It is a mainly self-limiting disease but can also cause serious neurological or cardiopulmonary complications in some cases, which can lead to death. Little is known about the burden of HMFD on primary care health care services in the UK. The aim of this work was to describe trends in general practitioner (GP) consultations for HFMD in England from January 2017 to December 2022 using a syndromic surveillance network of GPs. Daily GP consultations for HFMD in England were extracted from 1 January 2017 to 31 December 2022. Mean weekly consultation rates per 100,000 population and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated. Consultation rates and rate ratios (RR) were calculated by age group and sex. During the study period, the mean weekly consultation rate for HFMD (per 100,000 registered GP patients) was 1.53 (range of 0.27 to 2.47). In England, children aged 1-4 years old accounted for the largest affected population followed by children <1 years old. We observed a seasonal pattern of HFMD incidence during the non-COVID years, with a seasonal peak of mean weekly rates between months of September and December. HFMD is typically diagnosed clinically rather than through laboratory sampling. Therefore, the ability to look at the daily HFMD consultation rates provides an excellent epidemiological overview on disease trends. The use of a novel GP-in-hours surveillance system allowed a unique epidemiological insight into the recent trends of general practitioner consultations for HFMD. We demonstrate a male predominance of cases, the impact of the non-pharmaceutical interventions during the COVID-19 pandemic, and a change in the week in which the peak number of cases happens post-pandemic.
手足口病（HFMD）是一种传染性疾病，在10岁以下儿童中发病率较高。它主要是一种自限性疾病，但在某些情况下也可能导致严重的神经或心肺并发症，甚至可能导致死亡。关于手足口病对英国初级医疗保健服务的负担，人们了解甚少。这项工作的目的是利用全科医生（GP）的症状监测网络，描述2017年1月至2022年12月期间英格兰全科医生诊治手足口病的趋势。提取了2017年1月1日至2022年12月31日期间英格兰全科医生每日诊治手足口病的情况。计算了每10万人口的平均每周诊治率及95%置信区间（CI）。按年龄组和性别计算了诊治率和率比（RR）。在研究期间，手足口病的平均每周诊治率（每10万名注册全科医生患者）为1.53（范围为0.27至2.47）。在英格兰，1至4岁的儿童受影响人口最多，其次是1岁以下的儿童。我们观察到在非新冠疫情年份手足口病发病率呈季节性模式，9月至12月期间平均每周发病率出现季节性高峰。手足口病通常通过临床诊断而非实验室采样来诊断。因此，查看手足口病每日诊治率的能力提供了关于疾病趋势的出色流行病学概况。使用新型的全科医生工作时间监测系统能够对手足病全科医生诊治的近期趋势进行独特的流行病学洞察。我们证明了病例中男性占主导，新冠疫情期间非药物干预的影响，以及疫情后病例数峰值出现的周数变化。
