Two experts from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention do experiments at the virus lab of the Fuyang Disease Control Center in Fuyang, east China's Anhui Province, May 6, 2008. Medical experts sent by China's Ministry of Health set up a virus lab in Fuyang to do scientific research in enterovirus 71, or EV71.(Xinhua Photo/Chen Yehua) Photo Gallery>>>
HEFEI, May 9 (Xinhua) -- Two more Chinese children have died of hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD), driving the national death toll to 34 -- even as the Health Ministry announced a decline in HFMD cases in the worst-affected city.
Health authorities in east China's Anhui Province on Friday confirmed the two children had died of HFMD triggered by the potentially lethal enter virus 71 (EV71).
The deaths occurred in Bozhou, northwestern Anhui, and in Hefei, the provincial capital, said Gao Kaiyan, chief of the Anhui Provincial Health Department.
Information from the Anhui Provincial Health Department said a boy from Bozhou, surnamed Xu and aged 14 months, fell ill on May 1. He was moved to a county-level hospital after his condition worsened. He died on Monday.
A girl from Yaohai District, Hefei, aged 18 months, was reportedly admitted to the No. 2 People's Hospital of Hefei City. Her condition deteriorated on Monday, and she died early on Wednesday.
The Health Ministry said on Friday that HFMD incidence in the worst-hit city of Fuyang, also in Anhui, was in decline, with discharged patients outnumbering those admitted to hospitals for the first time.
The ministry said on its website that the majority of the serious cases had recovered, with no fatalities for seven consecutive days in Fuyang, which had reported the initial outbreak and 22 deaths.
According to the Guidelines Regarding Prevention and Control of HFMD published on the Ministry of Health website, HFMD can be caused by a host of intestinal viruses, but EV71 and the Coxsackievirus (Cox A16) were the most common.
Both EV71 and Cox A16 can cause HFMD, which usually starts with a slight fever followed by blisters and ulcers in the mouth and rashes on the hands and feet.
Those sickened by EV71 often show serious symptoms. It can also lead to meningitis, encephalitis, pulmonary edema and paralysis in some children. There is no vaccine.
As of Thursday, HFMD had sickened 24,934 children on the Chinese mainland, of whom 34 had died. The deaths were reported in six regions: Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan and Zhejiang.
Both Yang Weizhong, deputy chief of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Li Dexin, head of CDC's Institute of Viral Disease Control (IVDC), said there had been no mutation in the EV71 found in Fuyang, where both Yang and Li have been working.
The experts said they had finished a complete gene sequencing over eight of the nine intestinal EV71 strains separated and lab work proved the eight strains were 99.3 percent to 99.97 percent homologous.
"Also, the eight virus strains tested in Fuyang have a higher degree of homology in comparison with the four other virus strains separated from infection cases in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Chongqing and Shandong between 1999 and this year," said Li.
Work has started on the development of a vaccine against the lethal EV71, said Li, who added: "Technically speaking, there is no problem for developing a vaccine and I believe it won't take long."
BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) -- China has recorded 27,499 hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) cases so far this year as of Friday, resulting in 34 deaths, according to a Xinhua tally of local official figures.
The figure stood at 24,934 on Thursday, Xinhua found. Full story
BEIJING, May 9 (Xinhua) -- The incidence of hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) in the worst-hit Chinese city of Fuyang was on decline, with discharged patients outnumbering those checking in to hospitals for the first time, China's health ministry said on Friday. Full story
