Spatio-temporal dynamics of hand, foot and mouth disease in Malaysia, 2009-2019

Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is endemic in Asia-Pacific. There is geographic variability in the timing of HFMD outbreaks throughout the year across the region, and seasonality becomes less clear towards tropical regions. We used syndromic HFMD case surveillance data from 2009 to 2019 (N = 354,769 cases) to characterise the spatio-temporal dynamics of HFMD in Malaysia, which has a tropical climate, and identify factors associated with transmission. Despite the absence of regular annual seasonal patterns of incidence, HFMD epidemics were highly synchronised across districts within Peninsular and East Malaysia, but less so between the two regions. Median estimates of the state-level daily effective reproduction number (Rt) ranged from 0.47 to 1.54. Meteorological factors were found to have a small effect on HFMD transmission compared to the depletion of susceptibles (as a proxy for population immunity) and school closures, likely due to the low seasonal weather variability across the year. Studies using wider spatial scales covering a diversity of climate regions are needed to identify meteorological factors determining the timing of HFMD epidemics across Asia-Pacific countries.