China hails doctor for raising child virus alarm

BEIJING (Reuters) - A deadly strain of hand, foot and mouth disease has killed two more children in China, bringing the death toll in recent weeks to 32, state media said on Friday, as it praised a doctor who alerted authorities to the epidemic.

An eight-month-old girl and a boy aged one and a half, who both died in southern China, were the latest victims of an outbreak international experts have warned has yet to peak.

Hand, foot and mouth is a common childhood illness, but in the current outbreak, has been linked with enterovirus 71 (EV71) which can cause a severe form of the disease characterized by high fever, paralysis and meningitis.

The girl died early Monday morning in Guangdong province, which has registered four deaths from EV71, after emergency treatment failed, Xinhua said.

The boy, from the neighboring Guangxi region, started running a fever and coughing on Saturday but his parents didn't take him to hospital until Tuesday, when he fell into a coma. Doctors could not save him and he became Guangxi's second victim.

A cluster of EV71 cases in Fuyang in the central province of Anhui in March saw 22 deaths. Some 104 patients remain in critical condition across the province, official media has said.

The outbreak was not made public until late April, triggering memories of the deadly SARS epidemic that crippled China in 2003 and provoking calls for Fuyang officials to be sacked.

The World Health Organisation has said the delay was not because of any cover-up, but was due to problems local doctors faced trying to identify the illness.

China has since issued a nationwide alert, closing kindergartens and sending officials to visit nurseries and primary schools and educate staff on hygiene and prevention.