title: Effects of public health interventions in reducing transmission of hand, foot, and mouth disease.
abstract: We evaluated the effect of public health interventions including territory-wide school closure and hygiene campaigns during 2003 and 2009 in reducing hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD). We compared the observed and projected HFMD consultation rates among sentinel general practitioners using a decomposition regression model. Public health measures were effective in reducing HFMD by 57.2% (95% CI: 53.0%-60.7%) and 26.7% (95% CI: 19.5%-32.7%) in 2003 and 2009, respectively.
authors.affiliation: Surveillance and Epidemiology Branch, Centre for Health Protection, Department of Health, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Hong Kong, China. edmond_ma@dh.gov.hk
authors.forename: Edmond
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Simon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.forename: Shuk Kwan
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tsang
mesh_terms: D003140:Communicable Disease Control / Q000379:methods*; D018562:Disease Transmission, Infectious / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006232:Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000635:transmission*; D006801:Humans; D015233:Models, Statistical