Hand, foot and mouth disease, a virus that usually peaks during the hot months, has already killed 260 children in China this year and sickened hundreds of thousands more, the government said yesterday.
Every spring and summer China sees deadly outbreaks of the disease, which typically infects infants and children, particularly in rural areas where hygiene is poor. Most cases are mild, with children recovering quickly after suffering little more than a fever and rash.
The disease has struck earlier than normal this year, however, and by Tuesday the number of deaths reported were 143 percent higher than the same period last year, the Health Ministry’s Deputy Director of Disease Control and Prevention Xiao Donglou (肖東樓) told the Beijing News. An official with the ministry’s press section confirmed the accuracy of the figures reported.
Hand, foot and mouth disease is characterized by fever, mouth sores and a rash with blisters. It is spread by direct contact with nose and throat discharges, saliva, fluid from blisters or the stool of infected people. It is unrelated to the foot and mouth disease that affects livestock.
Nearly 430,000 children have been sickened by the disease so far this year, while severe cases have jumped by two-thirds to 5,454, the report cited Xiao as saying. Last year, there were 353 deaths from the disease.
The sharp jump in the number of cases could be because of better monitoring and reporting by health authorities and increased public awareness, said Liu Min (劉民), an epidemiology professor at Peking University.
“We’re now doing a much better job of discovering and monitoring cases since 2008 when the disease was included in the national infectious disease monitoring system,” Liu said in a phone interview.
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