Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common infectious disease caused by multiple enteroviruses (EVs) in China. To better define the etiologic agents and clinical characteristics of HFMD, we conducted this study in Yunnan, China.In this study, 1280 stool specimens were collected from pediatric patients hospitalized for treatment of HFMD in 2010. EV was detected with nested reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction and directly genotyped by gene sequencing of the viral protein 1 (VP1) region. Phylogenetic analysis was performed based on the VP1 partial gene and the clinical characteristics were analyzed using SPSS Software.Of 1280 specimens, 1115 (87.1%) tested positive for EV. Seventeen different EV serotypes were detected. Coxsackievirus A16 (CA16) was the most frequently detected serotype (615/1115 cases, 55.1%), followed by enterovirus 71 (EV71; 392/1115, 35.2%), CA10 (45/1115, 4.0%), and CA4 (23/1115, 2.1%). Among the 709 severe cases, CA16, EV71, CA10, and CA4 accounted for 48.0%, 42.0%, 3.5%, and 2.3%, respectively. Of the 26 critical cases, 13 were caused by EV71, 9 by CA16, 2 by CA4, and 1 each were the result of CA10 and E9, respectively. All EV71, CA16, CA10, and CA4 isolates were highly homologous to the strains isolated from mainland China, and belonged to the C4a, B1a, G, and C genotypes, respectively.Our study showed that EV71 and CA16 were the main causative agents for severe and critical HFMD, but other serotypes can also cause severe and critical cases.

With the development of medical technique, many medical challenges have been solved. This cross-sectional study was aimed to assess the reliability and validity of a new developed scale for assessing the professionalism of young health care workers.This cross-sectional population-based study was conducted based on cluster sampling method in 2015. The participants were from 2 medical centers of Nantong city of Jiangsu province in China. The internal consistency reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and split-half reliability coefficients. Construct validity was analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Content, convergent, and discriminant validities were also assessed in this study.Total 749 individuals aged 29.09 ± 3.91 years old participated in this investigation. There were 745 valid questionnaires and 730 were complete. Cronbach's alpha value (0.944) and the split-half reliability coefficient (0.873) reflected satisfactory internal consistency reliability of this new professionalism assessment scale. EFA extracted a 7-factor model. About 63.4% of the total variance was explained by these factors. However, CFA showed a good model fit after excluding the items with factor loading lower than 0.5. Good discriminant validity of this new developed professionalism assessment scale was also shown (P < .05). However, the evidences for content and convergent validity were not enough in this study.The results showed the satisfactory reliability of this new developed professionalism assessment scale. However, this scale should be modified to improve the validity in further studies.