The virus first appeared in March when young children were admitted to hospitals in Fuyung, in the central Chinese province of Anhui, suffering from fever, rashes, blisters and mouth ulcers. Nearly 6,000 children have been infected and 22 have died in the region.
The virus has since spread to other regions with a further three deaths and 1,692 cases reported in the southern Guangdong province some 1,000 kms (1,600 miles) away from the original source of infection.
The Xinhua news agency said health authorities in east China's Zhejiang province reported that a five-year-old boy died April 6 and that 1,198 children had been infected this year.
All the infected children are under the age of six, but the bulk of them are younger than two.
Enterovirus 71 and Coxsackievirus (Cox A 16), major causative agents for HFMD, are blamed for the epidemic. Though the death rate from the enterovirus itself is quite low, it can cause a number of severe complications depending on the age of the patient, such as polio and meningitis.
Beijing, China's capital and the most populous city, has reported 1,482 cases of HFMD, 818 were reported in kindergartens.
Laboratory tests have confirmed that EV71 was responsible for 25 of the 26 deaths reported.
The disease is expected to reach its peak in June and July, shortly before the Beijing Olympics starts in August.
