Viral outbreak kills 81 children in Vietnam

Vietnam is battling to control an unusually severe outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease that has killed 81 children this year and infected tens of thousands more, health officials said yesterday.
About three-quarters of the more than 30,000 reported HFMD cases so far this year have occurred in children younger than three, said Graham Harrison, the World Health Organisation's acting representative for Vietnam.
"It's a challenge to deal with it," he told AFP. "It's certainly a significant increase on the previous two or three years."
All of the dead were children, Vietnam's health ministry said.