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HOLDING ON FOR COMFORT: A child has her mouth disinfected against EV-71 at a kindergarten in Tianjin on Wednesday. There is no cure or vaccine for HFMD, but good hygiene can curb its spread. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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IN BEIJING - CHINA yesterday reported more deaths from hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), but experts urged calm, saying that this year's outbreak was not due to a new or more virulent virus.
The official Xinhua news agency said yesterday that two children in the southern island province of Hainan had died, bringing China's HFMD fatalities to 30, up from the 28 reported on Wednesday.
Both children tested positive for the enterovirus-71 (EV-71), which experts said also caused the other deaths.
EV-71 is just one of 60 viruses that can trigger HFMD but it is considered more dangerous than the others as it can lead to paralysis, brain swelling, and fluid in the lungs. There is no cure or vaccine for HFMD but good hygiene such as frequent hand-washing can curb its spread.
Despite the high number of child fatalities in China, World Health Organisation's (WHO) China representative Hans Troedsson said it was 'not looking at some strange, new virus'.
HFMD is a common childhood illness that affects children in many countries around the world. The EV-71 virus has been responsible for HFMD outbreaks in previous years, he said.
'There is no indication that the virus causing HFMD has changed this year, so in this respect, parents should not need to worry,' he said at a joint press briefing with China's Health Ministry on Wednesday.
Experts, however, will be looking into why there were so many deaths and infections in hardest-hit Fuyang city in eastern Anhui province.
Since China's first HFMD cases emerged in Fuyang in mid-March, 22 Fuyang children, many under the age of two and from the countryside, have died and more than 4,000 had taken ill.
'We don't usually see a cluster and high fatality like in Fuyang. We will have to investigate further,' Dr Troedsson said.
There are also questions over why some of the children infected there presented atypical symptoms, he said.
The early severe cases displayed none of the rashes typical of HFMD infections on their hands, feet and buttocks, but instead had breathing difficulties due to a build-up of fluid in their lungs, Dr Troedsson said.
This made it difficult for local doctors to identify the disease quickly, leading to late treatment and fatalities.
China's Health Ministry spokesman Mr Mao Qun'an said that the spread of the virus in Fuyang had since been 'brought under control' with no further deaths reported in the past few days.
Mr Troedsson and Mr Mao said more HFMD infections in China would emerge in the coming months, but that the increase should not 'cause alarm or surprise'.
'There are several reasons for this, we could be in the early stages of the outbreak and there could eventually be tens of thousands of cases,' Dr Troedsson said, noting that Taiwan in 1998 had 100,000 HFMD cases.
Mr Mao said that according to incomplete statistics, China had 80,000 HFMD cases and 17 deaths last year.
Another reason for the expected rise, said Dr Troedsson, was due to more thorough reporting. China's Health Ministry last week classified HFMD as an infectious disease which must be reported within 24 hours.
Based on statistics called in by provincial health bureaus, Xinhua said the number of HFMD infections nationwide had risen to some 20,000 yesterday, up from 15,800 on Wednesday.
tracyq@sph.com.sg
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