Hanoi (dpa) – Cases of hand, foot and mouth disease have surged, infecting nearly 12,400 children and killing 11 in the first two months of this year, authorities said Tuesday. This figure is 7.46 times higher than the same period last year, according to the Health Ministry's preventive medicine department. Southern provinces account for the majority of patients, with 19 per 100,000 people infected, said Nguyen Van Binh, head of the department. The virus is transmitted through saliva, blister fluid and feces, but it is rare among adults, whose immune systems are generally strong enough to fight it off. The disease is life-threatening in a small number of cases, owing to complications such as lung hemorrhages and meningitis. Last year, hand, foot, and mouth killed 166 people in Vietnam, most of them children. The death toll was 10 times higher than the previous year as a more dangerous strain of the virus became more prevalent. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/EtwDc Tags: Disease, Epidemic, Hand Mouth Foot, Vietnam Section: East Asia, Health
