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81 children die after HFMD outbreak in Vietnam
HANOI Vietnam is battling to control an unusually severe outbreak of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD) that has killed 81 children this year and infected tens of thousands more, health officials said on Thursday.
About three-quarters of the more than 30,000 reported HFMD cases so far this year have occurred in children younger than three, said Graham Harrison, the World Health Organisation’s acting representative for Vietnam.
“It’s a challenge to deal with it,” he said. “It’s certainly a significant increase on the previous two or three years.”
All of the dead were children, Vietnam’s health ministry said.
HFMD is a common viral illness of infants and children that causes fever and blister-like eruptions in the mouth, according to the US-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, which are Read more…
South African Charged With Making Bioterrorism Threat
A South African man was arrested this weekend on suspicion of threatening to attack the United Kingdom and the United States with foot and mouth disease, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, June 30, 2010).
Brian Roach, the owner of a Johannesburg-area engineering company, was apprehended on Saturday and brought into court today. The 64-year-old man allegedly warned the British government through e-mail and written communication that he planned to release the biological agent in the United Kingdom and the United States if he was not paid $4 million.
“We have the expertise and resources to do this very effectively and will be able to devastate the industry in the U.K. which will cost billions to the economy,” Roach said in an e-mail message sent to the British government. “We will devastate your farms and then we will then take the problem to Read more…
North Korea confirms large-scale foot-and-mouth disease outbreak
PYONGYANG: North Korean state media on Friday acknowledged for the first time that foot-and-mouth disease has broken out in the Asian country, affecting eight provinces.
KCNA said the most seriously affected areas are Pyongyang, North Hwanghae Province and Kangwon Province. Other areas which have been affected are North and South Phyongan Provinces and Jagang Province, although the other three affected provinces were not identified.
“Type O Foot-and-mouth diseases broke out on cooperative farms, diary farms and pig farms in those areas, doing harm to domestic animals,” KCNA said. “More than 10 000 heads of draught oxen, milch cows and pigs have so far been infected with the diseases and thousands of them died.”
The state broadcaster said a national emergency veterinary and anti-epizootic committee has since been established. “An emergency anti-epidemic campaign was Read more…
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