Southwest China's Guizhou Province reported Saturday its first death from hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) this year, said an official with the provincial health bureau.

Guizhou Province has reported 641 cases of infections from the highly contagious disease including two fatal ones and a dead as of April 10, according to the provincial health bureau, the official said.

The cases have been widely distributed in the province involving 59 Counties or 229 townships, the official said.

Central China's Henan Province and its neighboring Shandong Province have reported at least 31 deaths from the HFMD outbreak so far this year.

The total cases of HFMD in China have rise to 115,000 so far this year as of Tuesday, of which 50 were fatal and 773 were severe, the Ministry of Health said Friday.

The HFMD usually starts with a slight fever followed by blisters and ulcers in the mouth and rashes on the hands and feet. It can also lead to meningitis, encephalitis, pulmonary edema and paralysis in some children. There is no vaccine against the disease so far.

(Xinhua News Agency April 12, 2009)