China on alert as disease outbreak kills 112 in June

The Chinese province of Hunan urged parents on Sunday to seek immediate treatment for children showing symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease after official figures showed 112 people died from the illness last month. The disease, which children are especially vulnerable to, also infected more than 381,000 people, the Ministry of Health reported last week. "The disease incidence rate in June was much higher than that of last June, which has much to do with the high temperatures this summer," said Liu Fuqiang with the provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The province urged parents and teachers to send children to hospital as soon as they showed symptoms of the disease, including mouth sores, skin rashes or fever. In June, 34,768 cases were reported and 17 people died from the disease in Hunan, the statement said. According to the Ministry of Health, over 460,000 people were infected by the disease in May, leading to 132 deaths. In recent days, health departments in numerous Chinese provinces and regions, including Gansu, Fujian, Jiangsu and Xinjiang have issued warnings over the outbreak of the disease, state press reports said.