The Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Health's emergency notice, issued Thursday, aims to prevent the flu-like ailment from further spreading into the whole province, which borders Hong Kong and Macao, an official from the bureau said.

It is estimated that more than 50 percent of children in Guangdong have not been vaccinated against encephalitis B, which may cause a swelling of the brain.

The official said the health departments in the province's poor and rural areas should pay special attention to ensuring that the children there are vaccinated.

Thursday's emergency notice came after two children were detected with the disease in Guangzhou, capital of the province, on Wednesday. It is the first time that the disease has been discovered in Guangzhou since the start of the year.

The latest cases have increased Guangdong's total number of encephalitis B patients since the start of this year to 33.

A person in Meixian's Wuhua County, in the eastern part of Guangdong, died from the disease earlier this week.

The rural county detected 31 encephalitis B cases this month. All victims were children younger than 11.

The unnamed official attributed the mini-outbreak of the disease in Wuhua to poor sanitary conditions and the refusal of locals in recent years to be vaccinated against the disease.

About 93 percent of the children in Wuhua have not been vaccinated, the official said.

And more than 50,000 children in the county will be required to be vaccinated against the disease by the end of the month.

To this end, the local county government has also established a special task force headed by a deputy county magistrate to help cover the vaccination process.

To prevent the disease from spreading, a campaign to wipe out mosquitoes will also be launched throughout the province before the end of the month, the official said.

(China Daily June 20, 2003)