The laboratory of the Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention has detected enterovirus 71, the intestinal virus that has caused a nationwide outbreak and killed 32 children.

The detection means that local patients have been infected with the virus, city health officials said yesterday. This is the first time that local officials have had found EV71 victims in the city.

By Monday, the city had recorded 1,988 cases of HFMD without a fatality and patients listed in a critical condition. There were some 10,700 HFMD cases recorded last year.

(Shanghai Daily May 9, 2008)