First Beijing death linked to China virus outbreak

Beijing Health Bureau spokeswoman Deng Xiaohong said a13-month-old boy from the city's northern Changping Districtdied on the way to a hospital on Sunday. Hubei province to thesouth also confirmed the death of a toddler from hand foot andmouth, taking the nationwide toll to 42.

The spokeswoman said the child in Beijing had testedpositive for enterovirus 71 (EV71), a virus that has caused themajority of the deaths in the latest outbreak, which startedweeks ago in the eastern province of Anhui's Fuyang city.

Deng also said another child had died of the disease in aBeijing hospital, but that case would be recorded inneighbouring Hebei province, where the child contracted thedisease. No further details of that case were disclosed.

Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common childhood illness,with a number of causes, but the current outbreak has beenlinked to the EV71 virus, which can cause a severe form of thedisease, characterised by high fever, paralysis and meningitis.

There is no vaccine or antiviral agent available to treator prevent EV71. Enteroviruses spread mostly through contactwith infected blisters or faeces.

More than 27,500 cases have been reported in China as oflast Friday, Xinhua said earlier, with the number of new casesin Anhui province starting to decline. Other deaths have beenreported in the Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi regions.

Following the Anhui outbreak, China issued a nationwidealert, closing some kindergartens and sending officials tovisit nurseries and primary schools to educate staff on hygieneand prevention.

At least two Beijing kindergartens were suspended last weekafter children showed symptoms of the disease, but a HealthMinistry spokesman said then that the number of cases was notabnormal.

"We are confident the potential outbreak will not affectthe Beijing Olympic Games," Mao Qunan, the ministry spokesman,said last week.

Before the latest cases, Chinese media also quoted HansTroedsson, the China representative for the World HealthOrganization (WHO), as saying he did not expect the disease tobe a threat to the Olympics. He said the WHO was providingtechnical advice and support to China.

(Reporting by Beijing newsroom; Writing by Ken Wills;Editing by Nick Macfie)