Chinese officials report hand-foot-mouth disease claimed lives of at least nine people this year
China, Jul 02, 2010
Beijing's municipal health bureau reported Thursday (July 1) that hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) has so far claimed the lives of nine people in the capital city this year, the official Xinhua news agency reported. Two new deaths and 3,080 infections from HFMD were reported from June 21 to June 27 in Beijing. According to Xinhua, the bureau said that as of Sunday (June 27), Beijing had reported 25,255 cases of HFMD this year, compared with 11,823 cases in the same time period last year. Health bureau deputy chief, Zhao Chunhui, said that of the confirmed cases this year, 252 were critical. "Most of them were infected in the recent outbreak starting in early June," Xinhua quoted him as saying. The Beijing Children's Hospital was receiving an average of 400 HFMD cases each day, Xinhua reported the director of the hospital's outpatient department as saying, with most patients being children under five years old. According to the Ministry of Health, 537 people nationwide had died of the disease as of June 22, Xinhua reported. Nearly 1 million people across China have been infected with HFMD this year. Meanwhile, across the region, local media in Singapore reported Friday (July 2) that the incidence of HFMD in Singapore remained high in the last three months, Xinhua reported. The Straits Times reported that the outbreak seems to be affecting children aged two to four years of age in childcare centers, which had stayed open during school vacation during June. According to Xinhua, more than 13,100 people have come down with HFMD in the first half of the year, an increase of around 36 percent, compared to the last five years where the number of cases was around 9,649. In two of the last three weeks, the number of cases diagnosed per week shot past 679, or the epidemic level, Xinhua reported. HFMD usually infects children and infants and is spread from person to person by direct contact through nasal discharge, saliva, feces and fluid from the rash of an infected person. Symptoms include fever, ulcers in the throat and rashes on the hands and feet.
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