The hand-foot- mouth (HFM) disease, a contagious viral illness that affects mostly infants and children, has affected over 14,200 people across Vietnam and killed four of them in the first three months of this year, the Health Ministry reported. The figures were released by the ministry’s Preventive Health Department at a two-day national seminar jointly held in Hanoi yesterday by National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Vietnam. The event, which was joined by many specialists from the US, Japan, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Cambodia and a number of international organizations, was a chance for Vietnam to share information and experience in fighting the disease, said Nguyen Thanh Long, Deputy Minister of Health. The disease affected 157,654 people and killed 45 of them nationwide in 2012 before continuing to develop complicatedly so far this year, Long said. Besides Vietnam, many other countries are affected by the disease, including Japan, South Korea, Singapore and China, said Tran Dac Phu, deputy head of the department. Last year Singapore and China’s Macau and Hong Kong reported higher numbers of patients in comparison to 2011, up by 20-80 percent, Phu said. In Vietnam, the disease was first identified in Ho Chi Minh City in 2003 and has been spreading widely due to the absence of vaccine, he added. The disease is characterized by fever and a rash most frequently seen on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and inside the mouth. In Vietnam the most common strain is Enterovirus 71 (EV-71), which causes sores in the mouth and blisters on the hands and feet. The disease will peak in the country in the April-September period this year, health experts warned. Authorities at all levels should make the following information known to the public: the disease can be transmitted though digestive tracts; there are no vaccines or specific medicines to combat the disease; children under five years old are most vulnerable; and the main preventive measures are following hygienic practices in eating, drinking and living, the ministry said. Nguyen Tran Hien, head of the National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology, told the seminar that the Vaccine and Biological Product Company No. 1 under the Institute, has completed a study on preparing a vaccine against EV71, the virus type which has been responsible for 80 percent of the deaths from the HFM disease in Vietnam so far. Recent tests in laboratories showed that the vaccine is safe for use, Hien said, adding that the company will conduct further tests on a large scale and if the tests are successful, the vaccine will be produced and marketed.