India On High Alert Against Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease
Posted on May 8, 2008 in Current Affairs by Danteshwari
High alert is on in India against Enterovirus 71(EV71), which happens to be a causative agent for hand-foot-mouth disease. This disease has affected over 20,000 children, killing around 40 of them in four Asian countries over a period of three months.
In China, over 15,799 cases of HFMD as well as 28 fatalities have been recorded. Next in line is Vietnam, where 3,000 children have been affected and 13 of them died due to it.
The virus starts with fever, mouth ulcers, blisters and rashes, leading onto brain swelling, paralysis and death. It is contagious and spreads through direct contact with saliva or faeces and mucus of a person who is infected. The virus spreads quite fast and through infected travellers to India. So far, in India, there has not been a HFMD epidemic caused by EV-71 infection.
Dr. J.M Deshpande, Director, of the Enterovirus Research Centre, Mumbai said that the HFMD is common among children in some countries. The present alert has necessitated extra surveillance.
In 2005, a team of scientists belonging to NICD and Microbiology Centre, Calicut, in a paper published in the Indian Journal of Pediatrics claim that a change in the severity of HFMD was observed in the 1970s. A new pathogen known as EV71 had appeared which led to large epidemics causing several deaths among children. Extensive epidemics occurred in Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia, involving thousands of patients.
Source: TOI May 8, 2008
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