Characteristics of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome patients under 16 years old in Xi'an municipality,2005-2014

Objective To describe the characteristics of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome(HFRS)patients aged less than 16 years for the prevention of HFRS among unvaccinated populations.Methods Case records of HFRS patients under 16 years old reported between 2005 and 2014 in Xi'an municipality were extracted from China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention and analyzed statistically.Colloidal gold kit was adopted to detect anti-hantavirus immunoglobulin M (IgM) among the patients at the hospital admission.Results Of the 664 HFRS cases reported during the 10-year period,65.1% were males,with a male to female ratio of 2.6:1.The average age of the reported cases was 12.8 years.No differences in case characteristics were observed between the HFRS incidents during pandemic period and other time.Totally 97.4% of the reported cases had anti-hantavirus IgM detection and 85.4% of the cases tested were positive.The median hospitalization duration was 10 days.There was a positive correlation between the symptom severity and the outcome at hospital discharge.Conclusion The clinical characteristics of HFRS cases reported in pandemic duration was generally consistent with those occurred during other periods and the application of colloidal gold kit improved early diagnosis of the disease among the patients less than 16 years old in Xi'an municipality.