Experts from Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province, look at medical figures of sick chidren in Fuyang City, east China's Anhui Province, April 29, 2008. The Health Ministry of China sent Fuyang 35 medical experts from Hunan and Hubei provinces in central China to give better treatment to sick children on April 28. An outbreak of lethal intestinal virus Enterovirus 71 has altogether sickened 1,520 children in Fuyang, claiming 20 lives by the morning of April 29. A total of 585 have recovered and 412 are in hospital. Of those, 26 are seriously ill.

The latest death case was reported on Thursday afternoon, Gao Kaiyan, director of the Anhui Provincial Health Department, told a meeting.

By Thursday morning, 2,946 children have been sickened by the virus, known as enterovirus 71, or EV71, up from 2,477 registered a day earlier, Gao said.

A total of 849 children have recovered and 879 remain in hospital, 40 of them described as "seriously" ill and nine "critically" ill. More than 1,000 children were being treated as outpatients.

"Authorities in Anhui and Fuyang are doing utmost to treat the children and strengthen disease control," he said.

Local health authorities have designated more hospitals to admit and treat ill children, he added.

Previously, only two hospitals, including the Fuyang Municipal People's Hospital and Fuyang Municipal No. 2 People's Hospital, were allowed to receive such patients.

Hospitals in Fuyang in northwest Anhui started to take in children with fever, blisters, mouth ulcers and rashes on the hands and feet in early March. Some were diagnosed with brain, heart and lung damage.

All were aged below six, of whom the majority being under two.

In a bid to stop the virus spreading to more children, all kindergartens in Fuyang began the three-day May Day vacation two days early.

There are about 400,000 children below the age of five in Fuyang.

EV71 can cause hand, foot and mouth disease that usually starts with a slight fever followed by blisters and ulcers in the mouth and rashes on hands and feet.

It may also cause high fever, meningitis, encephalitis, pulmonary edema and paralysis in a small number of children.

Infection can lead to high mortalities rates in serious cases and no vaccine is available.

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