Gender and age distributions of HFMD
To explore gender differences, we found male cases were 1.34 times more common than females, and the male-to-female ratios of cases associated with CVA6, CVA10 and CVA16 were 1.30, 1.59 and 1.40, respectively. Children aged 0-3 years accounted for 73.71% of laboratory-confirmed cases, with an average of 7.21% of children under 1 year of age. Children aged 4-5 years accounted for 18.60%, while only 5.61% of cases occurred in children aged 6-9 years. Infections in people aged 10 years and older were rare, accounting for approximately 1.14% (10-17 years) and 0.99% (>17 years). The results indicated that HFMD generally affects pre-school children and children under 3 years of age were at the highest risk of enterovirus infection. Besides, among the reported 9 severe cases, all of them (100%) were less than 3 years and their major neurological signs were convulsion or/and startle as described by clinicians.