BEIJING - A VIRAL outbreak in China has worsened further, claiming the life of a 27th child and the number of infections climbing to nearly 16,000, state-run media reported on Wednesday.

The central province of Hunan reported its first fatality from the deadly outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease, a two-year-old girl who died on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency said.

Total reported cases had reached 15,799 as of Tuesday, it added, with the vast majority believed to be children.

'The country is gearing up for a nationwide war against a mass outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease with the number of cases this year continuing to surge,' the state China Daily newspaper said.

The paper said all of the deaths before the Hunan fatality had begun as the intestinal ailment enterovirus 71, which can lead to hand, foot and mouth disease.

The outbreak has hit children under the age of five particularly hard, previous reports have said.

The Chinese government declared a national alert on the weekend over the virus, which has spread throughout eastern, central and southern China as well as Olympic host city Beijing.

It also has set up a high-level task force headed by Health Minister Chen Zhu to coordinate control efforts.

The virus first began to appear in large numbers in eastern China in early March but was not made public until last week, prompting state press to accuse local officials of being too slow in reporting the outbreak.

Mr Chen met the World Health Organisation's China representative, Mr Hans Troedsson, on Monday, with the two sides agreeing to cooperate on keeping the virus in check, the China Daily reported.

Mr Troedsson said at the weekend that the outbreak of hand, foot and mouth - a common virus in China - posed no health threat to the Beijing Olympics in August.

Hand, foot and mouth is spread through direct contact with the mucus, saliva or faeces of an infected person.

Symptoms include fever, malaise and sores or blisters on the buttocks and elsewhere.

It can be fatal in small children, whose immune systems are still developing.

Eastern Anhui province has been hardest hit. Twenty-two of the deaths have occurred in one Anhui city, Fuyang, and the province has seen more than 5,000 cases. -- AFP