In the latest case, a 29-month-old boy died in a Shanghai hospital on April 16 after being transferred from east China's Anhui Province -- six days after he fell ill.

Zhang stressed that the disease won't be spread nationwide as it is not mainly transferred through respiratory systems like SARS, measles and other highly-infectious diseases.

Hand-foot-mouth disease is a common childhood illness that mainly affects children under the age of 10. Symptoms include fever, sores in the mouth and a rash with blisters. It can sometimes be fatal if complications occur.

The CDCP has sent expert teams to worse-hit provinces including Hunan and Shandong to direct the disease prevention work. Up to now, labs have been set up in all 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country to research on the disease.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health show that this year a total of 50 children died from the disease as of April 7, with 115,000 cases reported.

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Editor:Yang Jie