The number of children sickened by a severe form of hand, foot and mouth disease in an eastern Chinese city has risen to nearly 1,200, with 20 children dying from the virus, Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
A total of 1,179 other children have become ill from enterovirus 71 since an outbreak began at the start of March in Fuyang, Anhui Province, it said, citing the municipal government.
As of Sunday night, 341 children were in hospital with 27 in critical condition and eight terminally ill, the government said.
All the patients are under six and most are under two.
The symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease are usually mild and include ulcers and blisters in the mouth, rashes on the hands and feet, and fever. The illness usually passes within a week without treatment, but a small minority of cases become life-threatening, mainly because of neurological complications as well as lung hemorrhages.
The virus is highly infectious and transmitted through saliva, blister fluid and feces.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
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