China issues nationwide alert on viral outbreak

Health bureaus around the country must step up monitoring for hand, foot and mouth disease following a “relatively large” outbreak in the central city of Fuyang, the Health Ministry said in notices on its Web site.

The ministry warned that cases were more numerous this year than in recent years, and the peak for transmission would likely come in June and July.

The outbreak is another concern for China’s communist Government as it gears up to welcome hundreds of thousands of foreigners for this summer’s Beijing Olympics.

Saturday’s warning was prompted by a jump in cases in Fuyang of Enterovirus 71, or EV-71, a type of hand, foot and mouth disease.

Up to Thursday night, 3,321 cases of EV-71 were reported in Fuyang, a fast-growing city in largely rural Anhui province. Besides the 22 deaths, 978 people remain hospitalized.