A mother on Twitter said that her child’s school in Beijing has a recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease. It is “a virus that usually peaks during the hot months, has already killed 260 children in China this year and sickened hundreds of thousands more, the government said Friday,” a CTV News article reported this month.
It is“characterized by fever, mouth sores and a rash with blisters. It is spread by direct contact with nose and throat discharges, saliva, fluid from blisters, or the stool of infected people. It is unrelated to the foot and mouth disease that affects livestock.” And unfortunately, “there is no vaccine or specific treatment for the virus.” According to Wikipedia, it “has to run its course,” but doctors will prescribe medicine in severe cases.
Read about our beijingkids blog post from last year here.
Read more about the virus at World Health Organization’s website here.
Learn more on Wikipedia.
Photo from meggle of Flickr.
