North China's Hebei Province has confirmed 20,000 new cases of hand-foot-mouth disease within the past 20 days, Zhang Erzhen, from the provincial health department's disease control and prevention office, said yesterday.

Zhang said May-July is the peak period for the disease, and hospitals and kindergartens are being disinfected.

"With the rise of temperatures, outbreak of the disease is moving from south to north," he said. As of Wednesday, the province had a total of 43,229 cases of HFMD. So far, six children have died this year and 277 others were in serious condition, said Zhang.

Henan in central China has been hardest hit by the disease which had killed at least 34 children this year as of May 5. In eastern China's Shandong Province 31 had died as of May 11.

(Xinhua News Agency May 22, 2009)