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

More than 60 percent of Kunming residents consider themselves "happy" or "well-off" according to a new Kunming Daily survey of 1,000 randomly selected people who have lived in Kunming at least three months. The survey also identified some of the biggest obstacles to happiness in the Spring City, with housing conditions topping the list of reasons that people are unhappy.

More than 64 percent of the survey's respondents said they were "okay", "satisfied" or "extremely satisfied" with their lives in Kunming, with men and women reporting similar rates of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the city, the paper said. Nearly 80 percent of respondents said they were happy with their home lives and more than 37 percent said they felt energetic and healthy.

According to the survey, the biggest influences on happiness in Kunming were generally tied to one's economic situation. These factors include one's housing situation, income, medical condition and social environment. Respondents with income of less than 400 yuan per month reported the highest levels of dissatisfaction and unhappiness. Responses by people making between 1,000 and 10,000 yuan each month showed comparable levels of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with their lives in Kunming.

Retirees over the age of 60 reported the highest levels of happiness – a statistic that seems to validate Kunming's emergence as a popular place for wealthy mainland Chinese to buy their retirement homes. On the other side of things, many respondents aged 20 to 29 and 30 to 39 reported that they often suffer from low energy, feelings of stagnation and frustration.

Perhaps the biggest surprise is that respondents under the age of 19 reported the lowest levels of satisfaction with their lives. Not surprisingly, academic pressures were cited as the primary factor for unhappiness among teenagers and children.