Death toll from China viral outbreak rises to 34
9/5/2008 17:13
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 today confirmed the two children had died of HFMD
triggered by the potentially lethal enterovirus 71 (EV71).
The deaths
occurred in Bozhou, northwestern Anhui, and in Hefei, the provincial capital,
said Gao Kaiyan, chief of Anhui Provincial Health Department. Gao gave no other
details.
The Health Ministry said today that HFMD incidence of in the
worst-hit city of Fuyang, also Anhui, was in decline, with discharged patients
outnumbering those checking in 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 yesterday, HFMD
sickened 24,934 children on the Chinese mainland, of whom, 34 died. The deaths
were reported in six Chinese regions of Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan
and Zhejiang.
Xinhua
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