Northwest China's Shaanxi Province has seen 118 cases of hand-foot-mouth disease this year, but no deaths have been reported, local health authorities said Saturday.

The Shaanxi Provincial Health Department has begun to monitor kindergartens and schools to prevent the spread of the disease.

Central China's Hubei Province has seen 340 cases of the disease this year, but no deaths have been reported, local health authorities said Friday.

Death toll from a mass intestinal virus infection rose to 22 and 3,321 children had been sickened by the virus in Fuyang city in the eastern Anhui Province since early March.

Hand-foot-mouth disease, also known as coxsackievirus infection, is a common childhood illness that mainly affects children under ten. Symptoms include fever, sores in the mouth and a rash with blisters. It often begins with a sore throat.

Moderately contagious, the disease, more common in summer and autumn, can be transmitted through nose and throat discharges.

Infection can lead to high death rates in serious cases and no vaccines are available.

(Xinhua News Agency May 3, 2008)