China claims to have curbed the Hand-foot-mouth disease outbreak

The hand-foot-mouth outbreak, common in children, responsible for affecting almost 900 people in China and causing 2 reported deaths, is claimed to have been contained, as stated by an official with the province health department on Saturday.

The two deaths include a 14 months old boy who was admitted to Linyi People's Hospital on Saturday morning after developing fever and a rash with blisters, few of the symptoms of the disease. But his condition deteriorated quickly despite doctor’s efforts, according to an official, and he died the same day.

Before this, a two year old girl was diagnosed with the disease after developing symptoms of vomiting and fever and died on 29th April.

The disease started spreading in Linyi city of east China’s Shandong Province in late April and 981 cases of sickened people since then have been reported, 609 of whom have recovered according to the department. The department, claiming to have suppressed the viral to spread among children, also expressly declared to the state media that no new deaths have been reported.

The Provincial health department deputy director, Bao Wenhui told Xinhua news agency that another 393 people, mainly children, are still under the disease’s impact and 223 of them are in the hospital.

The media reports earlier this week stated that more than two dozen children had died due to the disease but the department covered up the true data to prevent public panic, brushing them off as rumours.

Shandong Province recorded 2,477 cases of hand-food-mouth disease in 2005, including one death, and 3,030 cases in 2006, two of which were fatal, according to reports.

Public awareness campaigns have been set up by the Local health departments to acquaint people with the precautions they should take to avoid the spreading of the disease like washing hands continuously and isolating affecting children etc. Daily reports are being prepared to monitor the outbreak closely.

Hand foot mouth disease is the most common cause the Coxsackie A virus and is also known as Coxsackie’s virus infection. It usually affects infants and children, and is highly contagious (can be transmitted through nose and throat discharges), can be spread through direct contact with the mucus or feces of an infected person and is not generally fatal.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes HFMD as mild (but can lead to serious and fatal diseases such as encephalitis or a type of paralysis) and says nearly all patients recover in seven to 10 days without medical treatment.

The symptoms of the disease include fever, rash in the mouth, sores with blisters on palms of hands and soles of feet, mouth ulcers or sores or blisters may be present on the buttocks of small children and infants. It often begins with a sore throat All the symptoms may not be present at one time.

There is no specific treatment for the disease and the individual symptoms may be eased with the help of medicines. Due its contagious nature the child must be kept in isolation and high temperatures may be controlled by medication and cool baths. Treatment with antibiotics is not effective. Salt water mouth rinses (1/2 teaspoon of salt to 1 glass of warm water) is said to be soothing if the child is able to rinse without swallowing. An adequate fluid intake must be ensured because swallowing may be painful. Extra fluid is needed when fever is present.

HFMD is not to be confused with “foot-and-mouth disease”, which is a disease affecting sheep, cattle and swine.

Diseases like bird flu and severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS have previously spread in China but they have a bad record of withholding important and relevant information.