China child virus cases high but no cause for panic

By Lindsay Beck

BEIJING (Reuters) - China should expect more cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, but there is no sign it is facing a new or more virulent strain despite an unusually high number of child deaths, officials said on Wednesday.

Hand, foot and mouth is a common childhood illness, but the current outbreak has led to 28 fatalities in China, mostly when linked with enterovirus 71 (EV71), which can cause a severe form of the disease characterized by high fever, paralysis and meningitis.

"There is no indication of a change or a more virulent virus," World Health Organisation China representative Hans Troedsson told a news conference.

But he said there were still questions about why there were so many cases in Fuyang, in the eastern province of Anhui, and why they presented unusual symptoms that made it difficult to identify the virus -- a delay that may have cost lives.

"We usually don't see a cluster like this ... so we have to investigate that further together with the government," he said.

China's official Xinhua news agency put the number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease at 15,799, up from about 12,000 cases reported on Tuesday, but the rise was due to more thorough reporting, not the disease's spread, a health official said.

"As we just started the web-based surveillance effort and reporting system, it is quite natural to see a rapid increase in numbers in the first few days of such reporting," said Health Ministry spokesman Mao Qunan.

The ministry recently made it mandatory for local health authorities to notify the government of cases.