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Two babies killed, 4 hospitalized by hand, foot and mouth disease in east China - Xinhua

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  • Shiloh
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    Re: Two babies killed, 4 hospitalized by hand, foot and mouth disease in east China - Xinhua

    Source: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp...W0TwjM0mHp_s-Q

    China says no cover-up in disease outbreak

    BEIJING (AFP) ? China's health minister Wednesday brushed off reports that officials had tried to cover up an outbreak of a highly contagious illness, but admitted problems exist in systems for reporting health threats.

    Chinese media last month said doctors and officials in a county in the central province of Henan did not report an outbreak of hand, foot, and mouth disease, which had already killed 19 children nationwide.

    But Health Minister Chen Zhu on Wednesday dismissed any cover-up suggestions, instead blaming low-quality medical systems for the inability to spot some health threats.

    "According to our analysis, the main reason for the failure to report some cases was the (low) diagnosis ability at the grassroots level," Chen told reporters.

    However, he also acknowledged that there were "problems with the way of thinking and the incomplete (reporting) system."

    He did not elaborate.

    The doctors and officials in Henan had avoided reporting the cases by keeping the disease's symptoms off the patients' treatment records, reports had said.

    Following the reports, the health ministry sent investigators to Minquan county and found one child had died from the illness, while media reports have said there may have been at least 10 more uncounted deaths there.

    There are numerous reports each year of Chinese local or provincial authorities covering up health and environmental threats to avoid being punished.

    The state-run Xinhua news agency said that as of Friday, officials had reported 41,846 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, which breaks out early each year in China.

    Last year's toll was unusually high, with 128 deaths reported through the first 11 months of 2008.

    State media had said foot-dragging by local officials last year had prevented the alarm being raised sooner.

    The health ministry said 94 percent of those suffering from the disease in this year's outbreak were under three years of age.

    Symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease include fever and sores. It can be fatal in children because of their less-developed immune systems.

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  • Shiloh
    replied
    Re: Two babies killed, 4 hospitalized by hand, foot and mouth disease in east China - Xinhua

    Source: http://www.etaiwannews.com/etn/news_...&lang=eng_news

    China on high alert in rural areas for child virus

    Associated Press
    2009-03-29 06:57 PM

    China's health minister has urged medical workers to fan out across the country's rural areas to detect and prevent cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, which has already killed 19 children this year, state media reported Sunday.

    The official Xinhua News Agency said Chen Zhu told health officials to visit every village and household in the countryside to check for cases of the child virus, after health officials said Friday that more than 41,000 cases had been detected as of March 27.

    The report said the virus has killed 19 children this year, one higher than the figure given on Friday.

    The outbreak appears more widespread than in recent years, based on previously released data, with about twice the number of children infected compared to the same period last year.


    Chen said in a teleconference Saturday that local health authorities should report such infections promptly to the ministry and that experts should be sent to help in places where the disease is prevalent, Xinhua reported.

    The disease typically strikes infants and children, and while occasionally deadly, most cases are mild, with children recovering quickly after suffering little more than a fever and rash.

    State media reported last year that the virus sickened 27,000 people and killed dozens in the first few months of 2008 before reports of outbreaks subsided in May. China's central Anhui was the worst-hit province with 26 deaths. It's not known how many died nationwide.


    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 persons. It is not related to hoof and mouth disease, which infects cattle, sheep and pigs.

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  • Shiloh
    replied
    Re: Two babies killed, 4 hospitalized by hand, foot and mouth disease in east China - Xinhua

    Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/lates.../idUSPEK107164

    Hand, foot and mouth disease kills five in China

    Sat Mar 28, 2009 11:51am EDT

    BEIJING, March 28 (Reuters) - Five infants died of hand, foot and mouth disease in the past week in a city in eastern China, where more than 1,700 cases have been reported since the start of the year, the official Xinhua news agency said.

    The five all died in Heze City in eastern Shandong province, where 440 cases were reported on Friday alone, Xinhua cited the local health bureau as saying.


    Hand, foot and mouth disease is relatively common among children and rarely fatal.

    But more than 40 Chinese children died in the spring of 2008 and thousands were infected when the illness was linked with enterovirus 71, which can cause a severe form of the disease characterised by high fever, paralysis and meningitis. (Reporting by Jason Subler; Editing by Jon Boyle)

    For other recent articles see:

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  • Treyfish
    replied
    Re: Two babies killed, 4 hospitalized by hand, foot and mouth disease in east China - Xinhua

    Hand, foot, mouth virus kills 18




    Source: Agencies/Shanghai Daily 2009-3-28 <IFRAME style="WIDTH: 0px; HEIGHT: 0px" src="http://total.shanghaidaily.com/ad/pv/gb2312/?id=64&catalog=&unique=1&screen=800x600&refer=&col or=24&refer_domain="></IFRAME>

    HAND, foot and mouth disease has killed 18 children and sickened 41,000 people across the country so far this year, China's health ministry said yesterday.

    The outbreak appears more widespread than in recent years, based on previously released data, with around twice the number of people infected compared with the same period last year.

    The disease typically strikes infants and children, and while occasionally deadly, most of the cases are mild, with children recovering quickly after suffering little more than a fever and rash.

    Li Xinwang, a doctor at Beijing's Ditan Hospital, said the peak season for the spread of the virus is usually May through July but that this year's early spike in cases indicates the toll will likely be higher than average.

    He attributed the large number of cases early in the year to "dramatic temperature fluctuations" that helped spread the virus.

    Vivian Tam, a spokeswoman for the World Health Organization in China, said the apparent jump in cases could be partly due to higher awareness. "One reason the numbers have increased this year is not necessarily because there are more cases, but rather, there is more reporting of cases than before," Tam said.

    Health ministry spokesman Deng Haihua did not give comparable figures for other years at yesterday's press conference, making it difficult to accurately compare against previous outbreaks.

    The health ministry has said China had about 80,000 hand, foot and mouth cases and 17 deaths in 2007.

    Last year the virus sickened 27,000 people in total and killed dozens in the first few months of 2008 before reports of outbreaks subsided in May, according to news reports.

    Deng told reporters that 94 percent of all the patients this year were under five years old.

    He said officials were stepping up prevention and awareness efforts to deal with the outbreak but that the virus would likely continue to spread.

    Henan and Shandong have been the worst-hit provinces so far this year, recording one-fifth of all the nation's cases, Deng said.

    Leave a comment:


  • Two babies killed, 4 hospitalized by hand, foot and mouth disease in east China - Xinhua

    Two babies killed, 4 hospitalized by hand, foot and mouth disease in east China - Xinhua
    Two babies killed, 4 hospitalized by hand, foot and mouth disease in east China

    www.chinaview.cn 2009-03-26 00:54:42
    JINAN, March 25 (Xinhua) --

    Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) has killed two babies and hospitalized another four in Heze City of east China's Shandong Province in March, local authorities said Wednesday.


    A seven-month-old infant died at 8:23 p.m. Sunday 10 hours after he was rushed to the Heze Infectious Disease Hospital (HIDH). A 15-month-old boy died at noon Monday in the People's Hospital of Juancheng County, Shandong Provincial Health Department reported.

    Four children being treated in HIDH were in critical condition, said Li Shixin, an official of Heze City Health Bureau.

    The disease was found in all the nine counties and districts in the city, he said.

    Besides the HFMD cases, another four babies died of encephalitis or suspected HFMD from March 8 to March 23, Li said. The Health Department has dispatched expert teams to Heze to instruct emergency treatment as well as disease control and prevention.

    Medical equipments were also sent to Heze to assist the fight against the disease.

    According to the Ministry of Health, HFMD can be caused by a host of intestinal viruses, but EV71 and the Coxsackievirus (Cox A16) were the most common. HFMD usually starts with a slight fever followed by blisters and ulcers in the mouth and rashes on the hands and feet. Those with EV71 often show serious symptoms. It can also lead to meningitis, encephalitis, pulmonary edema and paralysis in some children. There is no vaccine.

    Editor: Yan
    -
    <cite cite="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/26/content_11073139.htm">Two babies killed, 4 hospitalized by hand, foot and mouth disease in east China_English_Xinhua</cite>
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