The United States has said it will offer any assistance necessary to help Chinese authorities tackle the ongoing outbreak of hand-food-mouth disease (HFMD), which has so far claimed 30 lives.

William Steiger, director of the Office of Global Health Affairs under the US Department of Health and Human Services made the offer on Wednesday, while talking to the China News Service.

"We are willing to help China in any way possible with this issue," he said.

The US Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt will visit Beijing next week, and cooperation on the prevention of diseases such as HFMD is expected to be top of his agenda.

The Xinhua News Agency reported on Thursday that two more people had succumbed to the disease, taking the total fatalities to 30. The number of people affected, most of them children, has reached 22,240 by press time.

Also on Wednesday, Mao Qu'an, spokesman for the Ministry of Health, expressed confidence the disease could be contained, but said more cases were likely as the outbreak reaches its peak in June and July.

The WHO has also promised to work with the Chinese government to investigate the outbreak, as "it remains a mystery why there was such a high concentration of cases and fatalities in Fuyang," Han Troedsson, its China representative said on Wednesday.

Feng Zijian, an expert with the China Center of Disease Prevention and Control, said: "International collaboration on viral research is of great significance."

Chinese and US teams have already begun working together on epidemiology research and investigation, he said.

Meanwhile, the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) said on Thursday that the country has sufficient supplies of drugs for use in tackling the disease.

"We've already taken action nationwide to help with the battle against the outbreak," SFDA spokeswoman Yan Jiangying said.

All local drug authorities registered with the SFDA have strengthened the surveillance and monitoring of the drugs and medical appliances being used to help contain the outbreak, she said.

Ran Xiangui, deputy director of Fuyang No 2 Hospital - which the local health bureau has designated as the city's main treatment facility - told China Daily that several measures were being taken to control the disease, including the administration of antiviral and immunity boosting injections of steroids and human immune serum globulin.

"We have an ample and safe supply of the drugs, and all necessary equipment, such as respirators and monitors," he said.

(China Daily May 9, 2008)