BEIJING - The death toll from a viral illness striking children across China has risen by two to 32, and the total number of reported cases has jumped to nearly 25,000, health officials said Friday.
The latest deaths from hand, foot and mouth disease occurred in the southern province of Guangdong and in neighbouring Guangxi, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
It said an eight-month-old girl died of the disease early Monday in Guangdong. Xinhua said she tested positive for enterovirus 71, a virus that can cause a severe form of the disease, a common childhood ailment that typically causes little more than a fever and rash.
It was the fourth death so far in Guangdong, which has also reported more than 7,100 hand, foot and mouth infections.
In Guangxi, an'-month-old boy died after falling into a coma three days after he picked up the disease.
Xinhua said as of late Thursday that the number of reported cases of hand, foot and mouth has jumped to 24,932. A day earlier, the number of infections was',962, cropping up in areas ranging from Guangdong province in the south to Jilin province in the northeast and Anhui province in the country's heartland.
Health experts have said they expect the number of cases to rise as a result of an order issued this week by the Ministry of Health requiring health care providers to report infections within 24 hours.
Last year, 80,000 hand, foot and mouth cases were recorded in China with 17 deaths, the health ministry has said. Spokesman Mao Qun'an said the figures were probably incomplete because reporting wasn't mandatory then.
Hand, foot and mouth disease spreads through contact with saliva, feces, fluid secreted from blisters or mucus from the nose and throat. There is no vaccine or specific treatment, but most children affected by the disease typically recover quickly without problems.
It is unrelated to the foot and mouth disease that affects livestock.
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