The Yunnan Provincial Hygiene Department announced that as of noon on Monday, 113 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) had been diagnosed in Yunnan, apparently caused by intestinal virus Enterovirus 71 (EV71). The announcement comes one day after Kunming announced that all Kindergarten students would be checked for the disease.

59 of the reported cases, more than half of the provincial total, were diagnosed in Kunming. Other affected areas include Chuxiong (19 cases), Yuxi (13), Baoshan (12), Dali (5), Honghe (3) and Zhaotong and Lincang, which reported one case each. No deaths have been reported.

Although highly contagious among children, HFMD has a low fatality rate and is expected to be contained well before the Olympics. With SARS still in people's minds and the Olympics around the corner, the Chinese government has shown a greater degree of openness and transparency at both the central and local levels than with previous outbreaks.

As Jeremy Goldkorn at Danwei puts it:

"Despite foreign cable news reports screaming about a 'deadly' virus, the virus is treatable and not that deadly. On the other hand, Xinhua and CCTV have not shied away from reporting about the disease, a welcome change from the days of SARS in 2003, when a disease outbreak was treated as something to be ashamed of and covered up."

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Kindergartens to check for hand, foot and mouth disease

Kunming media is reporting that beginning today, all Kindergarteners in the city will be checked each morning for signs of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD). The precautionary measure is being taken as the number of HFMD cases in the eastern province of Anhui climbed to 5,151 over the weekend.

The HFMD outbreak, caused by the intestinal virus Enterovirus 71, has infected children in the provinces of Anhui, Henan, Hubei, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Guangdong, with 22 fatalities reported in Anhui and three in Guangdong.

No cases of HFMD have been reported in Yunnan or its neighboring regions of Guangxi, Guizhou, Sichuan or Tibet.

HFMD is a common and highly contagious disease that generally affects infants and children, with outbreaks typically taking place in nursery schools or Kindergartens. Symptoms include fever, blisters or ulcers around the mouth and rashes on the hands or feet. No vaccine is currently available. HFMD is unrelated to foot-and-mouth disease, which affects livestock.

According to Xinhua, the central government has formed an HFMD task force that will focus on containing the disease's spread.