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US offering to help China in fight against viral
infection
Beijing— The United States is offering to help China
in its fight against a viral infection that has killed 34 children,
including two reported Friday, and sickened thousands of others.
Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is making a
previously scheduled trip to Beijing next week and plans to discuss
health issues with Chinese officials, with the outbreaks of hand,
foot and mouth disease expected to feature prominently, U.S. Embassy
spokesman Susan Stevenson said. The scope and volume of infections
brings to mind the SARS epidemic of 2003, when China was criticized
internationally for trying to conceal the emergence of the disease.
American health experts have previously helped study and control
infectious diseases like SARS. Chinese officials have said the
outbreaks will not affect the Beijing Olympics in August.
Preparations already have been marred by unrest in Tibet and
demonstrations against China’s human rights record during the
Olympic torch relay around the world.
The latest deaths occurred in the hardest-hit central province of
Anhui, where 22 children have died of hand, foot and mouth disease,
the provincial health bureau said on its Web site. It said serious
cases, however, were on the decline in Fuyang city, the site of the
most infections and where the first wave of outbreaks was recorded.
As of late Thursday, the number of reported cases countrywide jumped
to 24,932, the official Xinhua News Agency said — up 25 percent from
19,962 a day earlier. Cases have cropped up from Guangdong province
in the south to Jilin province in the northeast, along with major
cities like Beijing and Shanghai. Health experts have said they
expect the number of reported infections to rise as a result of a
Ministry of Health order this week requiring health care providers
to report infections within 24 hours.—Agencies
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