Senior medics have warned the peak time for hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) is still to come after reporting a sharp rise in cases in Guangdong Province over the last month.

No official figures have been released by the authorities as to the scale of the outbreak in provincial capital Guangzhou, as well as the cities of Dongguan, Shenzhen and Heyuan.

But Wang Ming, director of Guangzhou center for disease control (CDC), told China Daily yesterday: "From the beginning of this year to Feb 22, the city only had a dozen HFMD cases every week. But from the end of February to March, the number of cases increased sharply."

The latest statistics from the Guangdong health department shows that, up until March 26, there were 3,245 reported cases of HFMD, while Wang said 21 percent of the patients had tested positive for enterovirus 71 (EV71), a virus that can cause a severe form of the disease.

More than 90 percent of cases had also involved kindergarten children under four years old, he added.

Wang explained the situation during last month was not as serious as the same time last year, but warned the peak season for HFMD was between May and June.

"Nobody has so far died of the disease in Guangdong, and most of the diagnosed patients were not in serious condition," he added.

At Zhujiang Hospital in Guangzhou, doctors have been treating up to 30 cases of HFMD every day. Pediatrician Li Hong said: "Last month we received more than 500 suspected cases and diagnosed 20 children with HFMD."

So far this year, 19 children have died due to HFMD nationwide, while, as of last Friday, 41,840 cases had been detected across the Chinese mainland, barring the Tibet autonomous region. Most reported cases were in rural areas.

Henan and Shandong provinces have been the worst. In Heze, Shandong, 2,893 children were infected as of Monday and it had a daily average of 376 cases last week. In neighboring Henan, HFMD had struck 4,428 children this year.

Wang said there was no specific way to prevent the disease, he added the risk of infection can be lowered by following good hygiene practices.

(China Daily April 3, 2009)