China child-killing virus may be yet to peak: WHO

By Ian Ransom

BEIJING (Reuters) - An outbreak of a virus that has killed dozens of children across China may be yet to reach its peak, but will not threaten Beijing's Olympic Games in August, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

Health authorities in China have been battling to contain EV71, an intestinal virus that has killed 22 children in Fuyang, a city in China's eastern Anhui province, and caused at least two deaths in southern Guangdong province.

EV71 has also been traced in outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in Hunan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, that have infected thousands of children across China.

HFMD is a common disease in children and infants and outbreaks regularly occur in China without deaths.

But HFMD caused by EV71 can cause viral meningitis and deaths, according to the U.S. National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

At least two other children have died of HFMD, but authorities have not confirmed any link to the EV71 virus.

There is no vaccine or antiviral agent available to treat EV71, a non-polio enterovirus which is spread mostly through contact with infected blisters or faeces and can cause high fever, paralysis and swelling of the brain.

"I don't see that this in any way should affect the Olympic Games," WHO China representative Hans Troedsson told Reuters.