Several officials were punished for failing to act to contain the contagious hand-foot-mouth disease after more than 200 cases were reported in a county in central China's Henan Province, a county official said Thursday.

Health officials and doctors in Minquan County were fired or warned after 220 cases were reported from Jan. 1 through Wednesday, said Wang Zhongtian, county head of Minquan.

"They should have done a better job since the (spread of the disease) is preventable," he told Xinhua. "Fortunately, the disease is under control in the county."

Wang dismissed claims that local medical staff had fabricated data to conceal the actual number of cases. The outbreak "is still under further investigation," he said.

A report on China National Radio said children with typical symptoms of the disease had been variously diagnosed as having meningitis, upper respiratory infections, intracranial infections or intestinal infections by doctors in Minquan and no symptoms related to hand-foot-mouth disease were mentioned in their medical records.

According to an initial investigation by the Henan Provincial Public Health Department, the odds of such a widespread fabrication are "fairly slim," Wang said.

But he said there were problems in the local medical records, with case histories that "have not been elaborated clearly."

Minquan reported the largest number of cases of hand-food-mouth disease in Henan, totaling 2,173 as of Wednesday, according to the Henan official figures.

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2009)