Abstract: Objective To describe epidemic status and etiological characteristics of hand foot and month disease (HFMD) in Benxi municipality of Liaoning province and to explore epidemic pattern and trend of HFMD.Methods Data on reported HFMD cases in Benxi city from 2012 to 2015 were statistically analyzed and reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) method was used to detect viral nucleic acid in specimens collected from the cases.Results A total of 2 276 HFMD cases were reported in Benxi city during the 4-year period,with an average annual incidence rate of 33.23/100 000,and no severe or death case were reported.More cases were reported between June and September in a year.Of the reported cases,82.21% were aged 1-5 years; 56.15% and 37,21% were children living scattered and in nurseries or kindergartens.The male to female ratio was 1.61:1 for all the reported cases.For a total of 1 105 specimens detected during the period,659 were positive to viral nucleic acid and the positive rate was 59.64%.For all the positive specimens the detection ratios were 28.83% for coxsackievirus A16 (CoxA16),21.40% for enteroviruses 71 (EV71),2.73% for both CoxA16 and EV71,and 47.04% for other enteroviruses,respectively.A dynamic changes in the pathogen distribution was observed among the reported cases.Conclusion The incidence of HFMD differed by time,region,age,sex,and other demography variables and major pathogens of the epidemics were CoxA16 and EV71,with a change from the dominant prevalence of CoxA16 and EV71 to other enterovirus dominant prevalence,in Benxi city between 2012 and 2015.