ViroBlogy

See on Scoop.it – Virology News

“Hanoi has asked the World Health Organization for help to cure a virulent disease affecting children. Symptoms include blistering on hands, feet and mouths accompanied by high fever and eventual organ failure.

Nineteen children died from the illness in 2011 alone.
The virus spreads through direct contact with an infected person’s oral discharges or saliva, the fluid from burst blisters or the stool of infected persons.
The Red Cross mission in Vietnam reports the disease has already infected over 28,000 children this year, which is more than 10 times the number of infected children in the same period last year.
According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), last year a record 110,000 children became infected, with 169 deaths.
The hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) disease mostly affects children under three years old (80 per cent of totals cases) the Red Cross said. There is no known treatment for HFMD.”

The virus is EV71, a picornavirus similar to the polioviruses and hepatitis A virus – so hardly a “mystery virus”.  There are also a number of vaccines in the pipeline for the disease, including one highlighted here a while ago.

See on rt.com

This entry was posted on 21 April, 2012 at 13:07 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.