China on high alert for virus that has killed 19 kids

The following is being reported by GMA News:

BEIJING – 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.

Here is the link to the original story: Virus


Links to additional reports:


18 children fall victim to disease outbreak

China is facing a serious situation in the control of hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) with 41,846 cases recorded so far this year as of Thursday, resulting in the deaths of 18 infants, a senior health official said on Friday.

"The epidemic is getting worse and infections are expected to peak between May and July," Deng Haihua, director of the information office of the Ministry of Health (MOH), told a press conference.


Contagious disease kills 18 kids in PRC

Highly infectious hand, foot and mouth disease has killed 18 children and infected nearly 42,000 in China this year, with the peak period still to come, a government official said yesterday.
"Currently the situation in our country on controlling the hand, foot and mouth disease is rather serious," health ministry spokesman Deng Haihua told journalists.

"The epidemic is in a stage of increasing... and we expect the peak period will come between May and June."

More to come...

New disease outbreaks in China

BEIJING (AP) —
New outbreaks reported Tuesday in three Chinese provinces and Beijing put the number of children infected with hand, foot and mouth disease above 12,000 and the death toll has risen to at least 26 across the country.

The official Xinhua News Agency said outbreaks in southwest Yunnan, the northeastern province of Jilin and the tropical island of Hainan, putting the total number of infections at 12,164.

Two kindergartens in Beijing were temporarily shut down Tuesday after children there showed symptoms of the disease, Xinhua said. There have been 1,482 cases in Beijing, most in kindergartens, it said.

To read the rest of the report follow this link:
outbreak


You may be asking, what is hand, foot, and mouth disease?

Source: CDC

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common illness of infants and children. It is characterized by fever, sores in the mouth, and a rash with blisters. HFMD begins with a mild fever, poor appetite, malaise ("feeling sick"), and frequently a sore throat. One or 2 days after the fever begins, painful sores develop in the mouth. They begin as small red spots that blister and then often become ulcers. They are usually located on the tongue, gums, and inside of the cheeks. The skin rash develops over 1 to 2 days with flat or raised red spots, some with blisters. The rash does not itch, and it is usually located on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. It may also appear on the buttocks. A person with HFMD may have only the rash or the mouth ulcers.

Is HFMD the same as foot-and-mouth disease?
No. HFMD is often confused with foot-and-mouth disease of cattle, sheep, and swine. Although the names are similar, the two diseases are not related at all and are caused by different viruses. For information on foot-and-mouth disease, please visit the web site of the US Department of Agriculture.

What causes HFMD?
Viruses from the group called enteroviruses cause HFMD. The most common cause is coxsackievirus A16; sometimes, HFMD is caused by enterovirus 71 or other enteroviruses. The enterovirus group includes polioviruses, coxsackieviruses, echoviruses and other enteroviruses.

Is HFMD serious?
Usually not. HFMD caused by coxsackievirus A16 infection is a mild disease and nearly all patients recover without medical treatment in 7 to 10 days. Complications are uncommon. Rarely, the patient with coxsackievirus A16 infection may also develop "aseptic" or viral meningitis, in which the person has fever, headache, stiff neck, or back pain, and may need to be hospitalized for a few days. Another cause of HFMD, EV71 may also cause viral meningitis and, rarely, more serious diseases, such as encephalitis, or a poliomyelitis-like paralysis. EV71 encephalitis may be fatal. Cases of fatal encephalitis occurred during outbreaks of HFMD in Malaysia in 1997 and in Taiwan in 1998.

Is HFMD contagious?
Yes, HFMD is moderately contagious. Infection is spread from person to person by direct contact with nose and throat discharges, saliva, fluid from blisters, or the stool of infected persons. A person is most contagious during the first week of the illness. HFMD is not transmitted to or from pets or other animals.

New Radio Program!

We are trying something new here at the Worldview blog. We have created the Worldview Radio Program!

Today we did the first ever broadcast! It was not that good but we are still learning and trying to figure out how everything works.

Here is the link to the program: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Trevor-Hammack




During the program I mentioned the situation in China and the spread of hand, foot and mouth disease. I had a number of people ask questions about this so here is some additonal information:


China county accused of child virus cover-up

BEIJING, March 24 (Reuters) - Chinese state media accused a local government on Tuesday of covering up the number of children suffering from hand, foot and mouth disease and the number of deaths.

The government of Minquan county in central Henan province said only one child was killed by the virus, but there may be at least 10 more deaths cases in the region, the official China National Radio said on its website (www.cnr.cn).

"(The death toll) should be no less than double figures," the report said, citing anonymous hospital sources. Double figures in Chinese means more than 10.

Hand, foot and mouth is a common childhood illness and rarely fatal, but it can cause fever, mouth sores and rashes with blisters.

There were possibly more than 2,000 children who had been infected by the disease, contradicting the official number of 277, since January, the report added, citing two doctors in Minquan People's Hospital.

Several officials had been punished for "failing to act" to contain the disease, the official Xinhua news agency said.

Calls to the Henan Health Bureau and Minquan local government went unanswered.

Xinhua said two toddlers died from hand, foot and mouth disease in neighbouring Shandong province. There were more than 502 cases in the city, a "high increase" from the same period last year, it said.

Earlier this year, a 17-month-old boy died of the disease in Lixin county in neighbouring Anhui province.

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.

An outbreak in Fuyang, also in Anhui, was not made public until late April last year, provoking calls for officials to be sacked and triggering memories of the deadly SARS epidemic in 2003 that was also initially covered up.

Here is the link to the original report: Virus





more to come on this subject

Boy Found Infected with EV71 in HK

I have been following the spread of the Hand, Foot, and Moth disease in China.

You can read all the reports at this link: Disease

Here is just a sample from some of the stories:


New outbreaks reported Tuesday in three Chinese provinces and Beijing put the number of children infected with hand, foot and mouth disease above 12,000 and the death toll has risen to at least 26 across the country.

The official Xinhua News Agency said outbreaks in southwest Yunnan, the northeastern province of Jilin and the tropical island of Hainan, putting the total number of infections at 12,164.


Then we had this update:

The number of cases across China has climbed to 15,799, up from 12,000 reported on Tuesday. Officials said that the rise was due to tighter rules on reporting and not because of the spread of the infection.


Today I just came across this report:


Boy Found Infected with EV71 in HK


The Center for Health Protection (CHP) of the Hong Kong's Department of Health Tuesday confirmed a case of Enterovirus-71 (EV71) infection involving a 10- year-old boy and urged the public to be vigilant against the disease.

A CHP spokesman said the boy had presented with fever and rash over his hands and feet since March 25. He was admitted to hospital on March 29 and is now in stable condition.

His throat swab specimen tested positive for EV71.

There was no Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease (HFMD) outbreak in the primary school that the boy attended and his family contacts had no symptoms of HFMD.

This is the ninth case reported to the CHP this year. There were 16 cases of EV71 in 2006, 12 in 2007 and 98 in 2008 respectively in Hong Kong



You can read the entire report at this link: EV71

China hand, foot and mouth virus epidemic getting worse

China is asking medical personnel countrywide to go house-to-house to help stop an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease which has now killed 19 children thus far this year.

“The epidemic is getting worse and infections are expected to peak between May and July,” Deng Haihua, director of the information office of the Ministry of Health (MOH), stated in a press conference.

40 Chinese children died in the spring of 2008 and thousands more were infected when the sickness was linked with enterovirus 71, which could cause a severe form of the disease characterised by high fever, paralysis and meningitis.

Heze city reported 1,734 HFMD cases between Jan. 1 and midnight Friday, according to the city’s health bureau. Just on Friday, 440 cases were reported

The hand, foot and mouth virus typically affects babes and children. Although some cases can be deadly, most are mild with children recovering quickly. It is spread by direct contact with nose and throat discharges, saliva, fluid from blisters, or the stool of infected persons.

Here is the link to the original story: China

What Is EV71 And Why Are Kids Dying In China?

Here is some important information realting to the spread of hand, foot and mouth disease in china.

The recent outbreak in China of enterovirus 71 has been called Hand, foot and mouth disease. HFMD is a common illness in infants and children. In most cases it is a mild condition that doesn’t require medical treatment and goes away in 7 to 10 days.
While HFMD is a common ailment of children and is widespread in North American daycares the virus in China is the EV71 which is a much more serious form. The main concern isn’t the virus itself but the syndromes that can come from it including acute flaccid paralysis (similar to paralytic poliomyelitis), bulbar and brain encephalitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome, and rapidly fatal pulmonary edema and hemorrhage.

In 1998 a huge outbreak took place in Taiwan. From March to December 1998 there were 129,106 cases of the disease reported in the nation’s children. That is just the reported cases. It was estimated that the total number of children that came down with the disease was over one million. 405 children had the most severe cases and in 19.3 percent of those cases death was the final outcome. All of the children who died were under the age of five although older children did have severe cases.

In an autopsy it was revealed that the presence of the EV 17 virus had invaded the spinal cord. When these children went to hospital they have generally already suffered for 2 to 4 days with high fevers. Once they were so sick that they were hospitalized the children died within 24 hours. Almost all of the children in the Taiwan outbreak died from pulmonary edema and hemorrhage or after they developed brain-stem encephalitis.

While prior to the outbreak in Taiwan it was thought that the only mode of transmission was fecal-oral it has started to be believed that it can also be transmitted by respiratory transmission.

The transmission of this disease can linger for months after recovery as it stays present in the feces for at least two months.

There is no set treatment for the virus. Rather doctors have to wait for a symptom to develop and then treat.

Once a child has HFMD they should be excluded from child care and school until any blisters have healed. If a child has Enterovirus 71 neurological disease they should be isolated from other children until their feces are clear of the virus.

China is in the early stages of this disease. With 22 children having already died in Fuyang it is sad to say but chances are the virus will be present during the time span of the Summer Games in Beijing.

There have already been reports of other areas in the Anhui provision where Fuyang is of children being ill and two probable deaths from the virus.

Will Beijing be safe for the athletes come August? Because the virus is most prevalent in young children it would appear so. Still that leads to the question of the safety of the youngest tourist coming to witness the games. There is a slim chance that children should stay away if the virus spreads to Beijing. It is always better to err on the side of caution when considering the risks to children’s health.


Here is the link to the original source: EV71

More children forecast to die from China disease

Yesterday I posted the article,
New disease outbreaks in China

Today I want to post an update to give people more informaiton about the situation:

More children forecast to die from China disease

The number of cases across China has climbed to 15,799, up from 12,000 reported on Tuesday. Officials said that the rise was due to tighter rules on reporting and not because of the spread of the infection.

You can read the report at this link:
China

China urges precautions against deadly virus

China has made it mandatory for health care providers to report all cases of a viral illness that has sickened thousands of young children across the country, as the death toll rose Wednesday to 28.

So far there have been 15,799 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease this year, the official Xinhua News Agency said, cropping up in areas ranging from the tropical island province of Hainan in the south to Jilin province in the northeast and Yunnan province in the southwest.

You can read the rest of this report at this link:
virus