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| Destruction of the spinal cord due to poliomyelitis-like EV71 disease |
But officials sought to calm fears amid reports that almost 1,900 children have been taken ill with enterovirus 71, or EV71, which can cause hand, foot and mouth disease.
Newspapers have published scathing criticism of local officials, attacking them for waiting weeks to raise the alarm, and even calling for them to be sacked.
The issue is particularly sensitive because of the uproar caused by the authorities' handling of the Sars epidemic of 2003. Then, they sacked the health minister and pledged to construct an "open and transparent" reporting scheme after it emerged that they had not told the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the outbreak until news emerged independently.
Today central government officials said the outbreak could not be compared to Sars and added that it had taken time to discover the cause of the outbreak.
"You can't talk about EV71 and Sars in the same breath. Sars was a new infectious disease, and anyone could be infected. Sars was also very deadly," Yang Weizhong, deputy chief of the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, said in a webcast.
"In the initial stages of [this] probe a lot of effort was expended, to rule out some serious infectious diseases like Sars, bird flu and meningitis," he added.
The first cases of EV71 emerged in Fuyang city in early March, but the outbreak was only reported on Sunday - 40 days later. Since then, the number of recorded infections has soared, with hundreds more emerging daily and reports of cases in neighbouring Henan province.
Chen Xianyi, head of the Ministry of Health's emergency response department, added: "The confirming of the cause of this illness, the raising of the treatment rate and clear improvement in preventative measures all came from the hard work of the central government. So I think it was reported in time."
Enteroviruses spread mostly through contact with infected blisters or faeces and can cause high fever, paralysis and swelling of the brain or its lining.
There is no vaccine or antiviral agent for EV71. Treatment focuses on managing its complications, according to the WHO.
Yang urged families to wash their hands often, eat well-cooked food and properly ventilate rooms.
"This is a seasonal disease, but it can also be prevented," he added.
At latest count, 585 of the children had recovered while more than 400 were hospitalised - with 26 of those seriously ill. All were aged below six, with most under two.
Today the state English language newspaper, China Daily, published an outspoken attack on local officials.
"The official warning against mass intestinal virus infection clearly came too late," it said in a commentary.
"It is certainly undesirable to throw the masses into a panic before adequate information has been collected about the situation.
"Yet, when there were rumours going around about the hitherto unknown disease, a business-as-usual attitude would not help. Worse, the government's efforts to play down the possible severity of the ongoing public health crisis may even mislead some people to ignore risks that they can otherwise avoid."
It added: "The outbreak of Sars in 2003 bitterly alerted the country to the urgency of building a sound emergency response system ... The Fuyang case shows again how far we still need to progress."
Comment: From the Asia-Pacific Enterovirus Surveillance Network website:-
The human enterovirus type 71 (EV71) was first identified in California in 1969 and is recognised as a major cause of hand-foot-and-mouth disease (HFMD) epidemics associated with severe neurological complications in young children. Since 1997 there has been a large increase in EV71 circulation and epidemic activity throughout the Asia-Pacific region. Recent HFMD epidemics in Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan have been associated with a severe form of brainstem encephalitis associated with pulmonary oedema and high mortality rates. We do not understand why this rise in EV71 activity has occurred.
The emergence of EV71 as a cause of large-scale epidemics of encephalitis is reminiscent of the emergence of epidemic poliomyelitis in Europe and North America during the early Twentieth Century and it is possible that EV71 may become the major infectious cause of acute neurological disease in the world following the eradication of poliovirus. Therefore, it is imperative that medical and public health researchers prepare for such an eventuality in order to avoid the large-scale loss of life and human potential that resulted from the poliomyelitis epidemics of the Twentieth Century and that has already occurred as a result of the EV71 epidemics in our region.