Poor medical conditions in rural areas 

HFMD infections were reported in both cities and rural areas; however,

"Most of the more than 2,100 severe cases and deaths reported so far have happened in rural areas," said Feng Zijian, director of the emergency response department of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control of China.

Quanzhou County, a badly hit area in the southwestern Guangxi Autonomous Region, reported 14 child deaths from infectious diseases this year as of April 12, among which four were confirmed HFMD cases and the other ten were very likely killed by the disease. All of the 14 children were from villages.

"Most of the 1,200 rural doctors in Quanzhou County have only nursing training while some just received a short medical training course after finishing high school," said Wang Zhongyun, president of the Quanzhou Renmin Hospital.

The case of Xiao Min, an 18-month-old baby from the County, illustrates the problems with the health system. She had a fever on April 7 and was sent to the clinic in Bailu Village, Shitang Town, where she was treated like a common cold patient by a doctor who has been working there for nearly 20 years.

Two days later, she started to have difficulty breathing, and was diagnosed with HFMD after being rushed to the county hospital. She died two hours later.

The HFMD outbreaks exposed the incompetence of rural areas in dealing with medical emergencies and infectious disease, as when the sick children were rushed to county hospitals, the epidemic had already started to spread, and the best time for treatment had passed, according to Wang Qun, head of the outpatient department of the affiliated hospital to Guilin Medical University.

Wang called on the government to strengthen training for rural medical staff.

"Rural medical staff are the nerve endings of China's disease prevention and control system. We have to make the endings acute to nip infectious diseases in the bud," he said.

Besides medical staff, experts are also calling on government to install more medical equipment in village clinics and hospitals.

Only one breathing machine was available in the whole Quanzhou County when the disease broke out, which severely hampered doctors' efforts to save lives.