Abstract
Introduction: Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common, highly contagious infection and its incidence is much higher in children under 5 years of age. The objective of this study was to describe the factors associated with an outbreak of HFMD
that took place in a nursery. Methods. An epidemiological cohort study was carried out. A
questionnaire was designed to collect data related to affiliation, diagnosis of HFMD and associated symptoms. An epidemiological survey was conducted by telephone with these children’s parents. Data were introduced in the Epi Info version 7.2.2.6 programme for
analysis. The existence of statistically significant differences was considered with a p <0.05 and the risk ratio was calculated with its confidence interval of 95%.
Results. The attack rate among the children was 29.03% (18/62). The first case started symptoms on April 27 and the last on May 11. In the preliminary health inspection control measures were established. The class group aged 0-1 presented the highest
number of children affected, with an attack rate of 73.3% (11/15) and where the first case of the outbreak appeared. The mean age of the cases was 19.8 months with a standard deviation of 7.1 and 29.4 months in non-cases with a standard deviation of 8.2 (p
<0.01). Conclusions. A rapid action in establishing control measures could have helped to limit the number of cases and the duration of the outbreak.
Keywords
Hand, foot, and mouth disease; Outbreak of hand, foot, and mouth disease; Outbreak; Kindergarten; Control measures
Bibliographic citation
Alsedà M, Egea M, Bamala JP, Bach P, Maestro S, Martínez A, et al. Factors associats a un brot de malaltia boca-mà-peu en una llar d’infants. Butll Epidemiol Catalunya. 2019;40(09):185-191,
Audience
Professionals
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