Hanoi, 6 APR ( EFE).- fever disease, a disease caused by a virus that primarily affects the child population, caused the death of 17 children in Viet Nam during the first three months of 2012, official sources reported today.

The Vietnamese Ministry of health indicated that, in what it far this year, viral disease has affected 21.295 people, mainly children, nine times more than in the same period of the previous year.

South Viet Nam and the Mekong Delta region is the most affected, with 9337 detected cases and 14 deaths.

Pre-primary schools had to close for a week as a measure to contain the spread of the disease while authorities deployed by the country teams of training of doctors and nurses in the early detection.

FMD in humans for which there is no vaccine or specific treatment, usually not lethal, but Viet Nam is affected by a more severe strain of the disease.

The virus causes fever, pain and blisters in the mouth, hands and feet and is spread easily to the cough or sneeze, mainly among children.

Last year, the disease killed 166 people, mostly children, in Viet Nam. EFE