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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.
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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.