In our study, compared to mild patients, the age of severe patients was mainly observed below 3 years (severe versus mild cases, P = 0.0016), and evaluated evidences with WBC numbers (severe versus mild cases, P < 0.0001; mild cases versus HC, P = 0.0035) and serum CRP levels (severe versus mild cases, P < 0.0001; mild cases versus HC, P < 0.0001) suggested that inappropriate inflammation may be elicited in the progression of HFMD in the acute phase of EV71 infection, which was consistent with previously reported data [7, 31, 32]. The gene discussed is CRP; the disease is hand, foot and mouth disease.