The China Teaching Web

“She had small herpes on her hands and her feet,” was how a Chinese student recently informed me that her niece had just a few days ago contracted the Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, also known as EV71.  ”She is OK now,” my student explained. “We took her to the hospital on the first day so the doctors were able to treat her.” My friend tells me that the young girl is now resting at home and seems to be on the road to recovery. 

In the aftermath of the earthquake in Sichuan, there has been little news about this potentially deadly virus. Just over a month ago, news of an outbreak of the virus in Anhui, and its spread to other parts of China seemed to be the cause for great concern worldwide. On the day before the deadly earthquake hit Wenchuan, the health section of China.org was reporting that 14 children had shown symptoms of the virus and that 4 children had been confirmed to have contracted it. Up until that date, China reported that the virus had killed over 20 children and that 4000 more had been infected. Local schools in my area were closely watching for symptoms and preparing for the worst.

Now in June, just under two months before the start of the Olympics games, I have been hard pressed to find any news stories about the virus. The story seems to have dropped ‘off the radar’ as people have focused their attention on the earthquake relief effort. When I ask Chinese people about the virus, some of them give me a strange look and ask ‘what in the world’ I am talking about. Others just smile and tell me that they have no idea what happened to the virus; many assume that the government ‘cured’ it. Others tell me that they have not seen any mention of the virus on Chinese television for a few weeks. “It’s like other things that happen in China,” a Chinese friend told me today. “Sometimes stories just disappear.”

A check of the WHO international website as well as the Chinese website reveals little current information about EV71. In fact, when I search the Chinese site for information about EV71 or Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease, nothing is found. I have also looked for a report about the virus which according to the international WHO website, can be found on the Chinese site; so far, no luck.

The only substantial information that I have been able to find about the virus since the earthquake comes from a few websites such as ChinaView.cn, which featured an article entitled Hand-foot-mouth disease declining in China’s Anhui Province in which it states  that “734 people were still hospitalized in Anhui, including 10 in serious or critical condition.” A few other websites have reported the same information but there seems to have been little or no coverage of the virus recently in the international media.

Truth be told, I had almost forgotten about EV71 myself until my friend told me that her niece had been infected with it. My friend assumes that the little girl contracted the virus from school which means others were probably infected with it as well. So whatever did happen to the EV71? Is it now a non-story because the Chinese government was truly able to conquer it or is it just one of those stories (like the struggle in Tibet) that has been ‘buried’ for the time being underneath the earthquake news stories?   For once, I am at a loss. It seems like the story disappeared too quickly. What gives?

If anyone has information about what happened to EV71, please feel free to leave a comment on this page.