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BEIJING : The number of children confirmed to have died from a highly contagious virus in China rose to 28 on Wednesday as authorities warned a "mass outbreak" across the country was looming.
Hand, foot and mouth disease claimed the lives of a two-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy on Tuesday, lifting the total number of fatalities to 28, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The children died in the central province of Hunan and the neighbouring Guanxi region, the first time fatalities had been reported in those areas.
Xinhua reported the number of people infected, the vast majority of them believed to be children, also rose by around 4,000 to 15,799, as authorities scrambled to distribute information to parents over how to prevent the disease.
"The country is gearing up for a nationwide war against a mass outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease with the number of cases this year continuing to surge," the state-run China Daily newspaper said.
Most of the deaths had begun as the intestinal ailment enterovirus 71, which can lead to hand, foot and mouth disease.
The Chinese government declared a national alert on the weekend over the virus, which has spread throughout eastern, central and southern China as well as Olympic host city Beijing.
Beijing also has set up a high-level task force headed by Health Minister Chen Zhu to coordinate nationwide control efforts.
The virus first appeared in large numbers in eastern China in early March but was not made public until last week, prompting state press to accuse local officials of being too slow in reporting the outbreak.
Chen met the World Health Organisation's China representative, Hans Troedsson, on Monday, with the two sides agreeing to cooperate on keeping the virus in check, the China Daily reported.
Troedsson said at the weekend that the outbreak of hand, foot and mouth - a common virus in China - posed no health threat to the Beijing Olympics in August.
Hand, foot and mouth disease is spread through direct contact with the mucus, saliva or faeces of an infected person.
Symptoms include fever, malaise and sores or blisters on the buttocks and elsewhere.
It can be fatal in small children, whose immune systems are still developing.
However practising good hygiene, such as washing hands regularly and not sharing food, can prevent the disease.
Eastern Anhui province has been hardest hit.
Twenty-two of the deaths have occurred in one Anhui city, Fuyang, and the province has seen more than 5,000 cases. - AFP/ms
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