First death from hand foot and mouth disease in Beijing

According to local media, Beijing’s Municipal Health Bureau announced (original in Chinese here) that between Jan 1 and May 12 this year, there have been 3,606 cases of hand foot and mouth disease (HFMD) and one case of someone dying from the disease. They stress that the main cause of the fatality is that the child was not taken to a hospital in time to receive medical attention. There was also one other death from HFMD in Beijing, but, because the patient traveled from Hebei to Beijing for treatment, Beijing’s health authorities are not including the death in Beijing’s statistics. Currently Chaoyang, Fengtai and Changping are the three districts with the most cases of the disease.

70 children have been hospitalized with the disease, 55 of them are Beijing residents and the other 15 coming from outside Beijing. 36 of these children have already been discharged with 32 remaining in hospital, 8 of whom are in critical condition.

Beijing’s Municipal Health Bureau reminds parents that as soon as they notice symptoms such as fever and mouth lesions in their children, they should get them to the hospital as soon as possible.

The National Health burea has announced that the situation in Anhui’s Fuyang is improving with the number of cases leaving the hospital now more than the number of new cases entering. They’ve also announced that on the 10th of every month the bureau will publicly announce the number of HFMD cases across the country.

Keep reading below for a set of useful links tha provide more information about the disease and advice from various hospitals and embassies in Beijing:

Info in English
American Consulate in Beijing: Enterovirus 71 (Ev71) Outbreak In Central China
United Family Hospitals: Update on Enterovirus 71 (EV71) Outbreak
WHO: Enterovirus in China – update
English Website of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau
Wikipedia: EV-71