Enterovirus 71 was first isolated from an outbreak of secondary central nervous system infection in California, USA, from 1969 to 1970, and spread to all parts of the world after 1970; it caused an epidemic mainly characterized by meningitis in Australia in 1972; it caused an epidemic mainly characterized by hand, foot, oral disease and (or) aseptic meningitis in Japan in 1973, and an epidemic mainly characterized by aseptic meningitis in Sweden, accompanied by a small number of hand, foot, and oral diseases; EV 71 was first isolated from fecal specimens of infants with central nervous system diseases in California in 1969, and was identified and named in 1974. Since then, many countries have reported the prevalence of EV71. The first discovery of EV 71 infection in mainland China was in a case of hand, foot and mouth disease in Hubei Province in the winter of 1987. In 1995, the Wuhan Institute of Virology isolated EV71 from a patient with hand, foot and mouth disease. After that, many outbreaks were found to be caused by EV 71 infection.