Shanghai Health Bureau on Tuesday confirmed the city's first child death of hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD).

The two-year-old boy was sent to the Shanghai Public Health Clinic Center for treatment on the evening of May 14, where he was diagnosed as having HFMD.

Emergency treatment failed and he died a few hours later, according to the bureau.

The child, a native in north China's Henan Province, lived with his family in Songjiang District of Shanghai, said a bureau statement.

Medical experts were still studying the case.

Shanghai reported 10,340 HFMD cases in the first five months. The city is not on the Health Ministry's list of the regions worst hit by the epidemic.

The ministry reported earlier last week that there were more than 176,000 HFMD cases reported nationwide last month. Daily reported cases declined from 11,501 at the peak on May 14 to 3,922 on June 5.

Central Anhui Province, which first reported the outbreak of HFMD, had 10,700 cases in May including four deaths.

The worst-hit provinces were Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hebei, Shandong and Hunan, according to the ministry's report.

Nurseries in Fuyang City, Anhui, the worst-hit city, resumed classes on Children's Day (June 1) as health authorities considered the situation was under control.

HFMD can be caused by a host of intestinal viruses, but EV71 and the Coxsackievirus are the most common. Those with EV71 often show serious symptoms. It can also lead to meningitis, encephalitis, pulmonary edema and paralysis in some children. There is no vaccine.

(Xinhua News Agency June 17, 2008)