The
current outbreak of hand-foot-mouth disease among children in HCM City is being
caused by the coxsackie B2 virus and not EV71, doctors at Children’s Hospital No
1 said on Sunday.

According to Dr Truong
Huu Khanh, head of the hospital’s Infectious Diseases Ward, the B2 virus belongs
to a group of pathogenic enteroviruses that trigger illness.

It is more dangerous
than the EV71 virus, and makes a patient worsen or even die rapidly.

Since first
discovering HFM in Viet Nam in 2004, doctors said it is caused by EV71 which
creates rashes on the hands, feet, mouth, tongue, and inside of the cheeks.

Children with the
disease will develop fever, headache, and fatigue and vomit.

There have been nine
deaths due to the disease in the city this year, according to the Preventive
Medicine Centre.

More than 1,300 kids
have contracted the disease, many of them were hospitalised in serious
condition, and 10 of them developed complications like encephalitis.

The Infectious
Diseases Ward admits nearly 100 kids every day, double the number as recently as
at the beginning of April.

The Children’s
Hospital No 2 admits around 100 children with the disease every day, and hooks
up many of them on respirators.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News