The number of cases of hand-foot-mouth disease in Fuyang, a city in the eastern province of Anhui, rose to 3,736 as of early Saturday from 3,321 on Friday, local authorities said.
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Wang Jinshan, secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, visited hospitals in Fuyang on Friday and called for a long-term system to prevent outbreaks of major infectious diseases.
Forty-five medical specialists dispatched by the Health Ministry and the provincial health department have arrived in Fuyang.
The province has upgraded its public health emergency status from class three to class two, which means the provincial government can quarantine patients and control movements in and out of Fuyang.
EV71 can cause hand, foot and mouth disease that usually starts with a slight fever followed by blisters and ulcers in the mouth and rashes on the hands and feet.
It can also cause high fever, meningitis, encephalitis, pulmonary edema and paralysis in a sma
More Efforts to Control the Infectious Diseases
China's Ministry of Health (MOH) has urged local health bureaus to step up the prevention and control of infectious diseases ahead of the Olympics.
The MOH issued a circular on Saturday that ordered local bureaus to do their best to prevent and control infectious diseases, since mass outbreaks could easily occur at this time of year.
Besides the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) that killed 22 children in eastern Anhui Province, the MOH ordered bureaus to increase surveillance of plague, cholera, hepatitis A, typhoid fever, diarrhea, pneumonia, malaria and meningitis.
Despite the overall progress made in controlling infectious diseases, epidemics have still broken out repeatedly in some regions, especially after unusual weather and population movements, the circular said.
