WHO finds virus link to mystery disease

PHNOM PENH — Health experts working to identify an illness that has killed dozens of children in Cambodia found a link to a virus that causes hand, foot and mouth disease, the UN health agency said yesterday.

At least 52 children aged three months to 11 years have died from the undiagnosed syndrome since mid-April, out of 59 cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Cambodian health ministry said, updating the toll.

Recent laboratory results showed “a significant proportion of the samples tested positive for Enterovirus 71 ( EV- 71)”, which causes a lethal strain of hand, foot and mouth Cambodian children and their parents sitting at Kantha Bopha children’s hospital in Phnom Penh. disease, the joint statement said.

EV-71 is common in Asia, but Nima Asgari, a public health specialist for the WHO in Cambodia, told AFP he believed it had not been seen in this country before.

Asgari said identification of the strain was an important first step but stressed more tests were needed to learn if the deceased children also suffered from other viruses.

“It’s a significant finding,” he said. “It demystifies quite a lot the situation.”

Mystery surrounding the disease — which has symptoms including high fever, followed by rapid deterioration of respiratory functions — and its high fatality rate among young children, has caused concern among Cambodians.