Child virus fears spread to China's capital

The disease is a common illness in children and infantscaused by a family of viruses called enteroviruses andoutbreaks regularly occur in China.

But the current outbreak has led to fatalities mostly whenlinked with enterovirus 71 (EV71), which can cause a severeform of the disease that can lead to high fever, paralysis andviral meningitis.

Some 11,905 cases of hand, foot and mouth have beenreported in China this year, the official Xinhua news agencysaid. EV71 has caused 26 deaths, largely in Fuyang, a city inChina's eastern province of Anhui. At least two deaths were inthe southern province of Guangdong.

All of the deaths in Fuyang were of children under sixyears old and most were under two.

Parents in Beijing, host city of the 2008 Olympics that hasnot reported any deaths from EV71, were also on the alert.

"Of course we're worried. If a child got sick, we'd be veryfrightened," said one woman, bouncing a toddler on her hip. "Weknow about this virus, but we don't know clearly how to protectourselves. The information hasn't been thorough enough."

Beijing has had 1,482 cases of hand, foot and mouth diseasethis year, mostly in children under five, the Beijing Newsreported.

It was not immediately clear whether any of the Beijingcases involved the EV71 strain, but Beijing said it would fromnow on release a weekly toll to the media.

The city's Centre for Disease Control has advised that anychild found with the illness should be isolated at home, andthat if more than three children in a single classroom wereinfected the class should be suspended, the newspaper said.

A doctor from a Beijing children's hospital declinedpermission for interviews there, saying it could cause panic.

"Parents are already very nervous, and if they see acamera, they would think that our hospital has such cases andthey will take away their children," the doctor told Reuters.

The World Health Organisation this week ruled out the virusas a threat to the Olympics.

The World Health Organisation has cautioned that the virus,which spreads mostly through contact with infected blisters orfaeces, could be yet to peak.

China, which initially covered up the SARS epidemic in2003, has denied a cover-up this time round and orderedauthorities to aggressively tackle hand, foot and mouth.

An editorial in Monday's China Daily blamed the crisis inFuyang on a "delayed reaction" by the local government.

But at least one Beijing resident said he had confidence inthe government's efforts.

"Before, when SARS hit, that was the scariest time," saidHe Xinping, the father of an 8-year-old. "But now, with Beijinghosting the Olympics, the city is certain to increase itsefforts."

(Reporting by Lindsay Beck and Reuters Television; Editingby Nick Macfie)