Impact of weather variable on the incidence of hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) in Kuala Lumpur

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a pediatric infectious disease-causing outbreak worldwide. Enterovirus 71 (EV-A71) and Coxsackievirus 16 (CV-A16) are the main pathogens that can cause HFMD. This study aims to determine the association between weather variables with incident of Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease (HFMD). This study is to determine the relationship between the weather variables which are rainfall, humidity and temperature with the incident case of HFMD in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The weather variables and incidences of HFMD during the period 2015-2019 had been collected on a monthly basis. The correlation analysis was conducted between weather variables and the incidence of HFMD cases. The results for the correlation test that had been done between weather variables and HFMD shows that temperature and rainfall had a strong correlation with incidence of HFMD which were r = 0.83 and r = 0.87 respectively. Temperature and rainfall were found to be significantly correlated with the number of HFMD cases in Kuala Lumpur. This shows that weather variations may affect the transmission of HFMD in Kuala Lumpur. It is suggested that temperature could be used as a predictor of the number of HFMD cases in tropical countries. Thus, public health interventions should be conducted during this stage in order to adapt and overcome the possible effects of climate change in the future.