EV71 hits Mainland China

Mainland baby, young girl treated for deadly virus

Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Mary Ann Benitez
The Standard (China)

Two mainland children - a five-year-old girl from Guangxi and a 39-day-old baby boy from Shenzhen - are being treated at Hong Kong hospitals for a severe form of enterovirus infection, the Centre for Health Protection said last night.

It is the third and fourth such case of the infection this year and comes days after Cambodia announced that Enterovirus71 was the dominant virus that killed 52 of 59 children during the past three months.

EV71 is a virulent strain of the common childhood ailment hand, foot and mouth disease.

The center said it notified the Ministry of Health about the two children, who were infected in the mainland.

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Secretary for Food and Health Ko Wing-man was also informed.

"We do not have any information on their parents' nationality or identity," a spokesman for the center said.

He also declined to say if temperature scanners are still being used at cross- border checkpoints or if the vehicles that transported the children to Hong Kong have been disinfected because of the highly contagious disease.

The girl, who does not attend school in her home province, had fever, headache and a stiff neck on July 1.

She came to Hong Kong for treatment on July 4 and was admitted to the Hong Kong Adventist Hospital in Mid- Levels.

The clinical diagnosis was meningitis due to EV infection, with her cerebrospinal fluid specimen testing positive for the virus. Her condition is stable.

The girl's older twin brothers, aged seven, also had symptoms and sought medical help. Other family members did not have any symptoms.

The baby boy lives in Shenzhen and had fever on July 4. He was brought to Hong Kong for treatment the next day and admitted to Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin.

He no longer has fever and was stable last night.

His cerebrospinal fluid specimen tested positive for EV while his rectal swab tested positive for the Coxsackie virus. Both viruses cause hand, foot and mouth disease, so called because of characteristic rashes.

The specific strain of EV for both children has not yet been typed, but most likely could be EV71, which experts and the CHP have said "is more likely associated with severe medical complications and even death."

Hong Kong has reported 297 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease up to July 5 this year, of which 39 were confirmed as EV71.

No deaths have been reported.