BEIJING'S health authority yesterday confirmed the first death from hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) in the capital.

Deng Xiaohong, spokeswoman of the Beijing Health Bureau, said that a child, an unidentified resident of Chaoyang District, had died on the way to a hospital on May 11.

She said that the child had tested positive for enterovirus 71 (EV71), a virus that has caused the majority of HFMD deaths in China.

The spokeswoman also confirmed that another child in North China's Hebei Province had died of HFMD in a Beijing hospital.

"Under the disease counting regulations of the Ministry of Health, the child from Hebei was not counted in Beijing's disease toll," said Deng.

The number of HFMD cases in Beijing was 3,606 as of May 12, up from 1,492 cases reported on May 4. The health bureau did not update the figure by yesterday morning.

The spokeswoman said the deaths should not be seen as a sign that the disease control situation in the national capital was worsening.

"Both deaths should be attributed to the delay in getting hospital treatment by the children's families. We again urged parents to send their children to standard hospitals immediately after they find children to have likely symptoms related to the disease," said Deng.

HFMD has sickened more than 24,934 children on the Chinese mainland, of whom 42 have died as of yesterday. The deaths have occurred in Anhui,Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan, Zhejiang, Beijing and Hubei.

(Xinhua)