Twenty-two children died from hand-foot-mouth disease as of Sunday in eastern China's Shandong Province, the provincial health administration announced Tuesday.

The total included 17 deaths in Heze, two each in Jining and Liaocheng, and one in Yantai.

The populous province has reported 29,227 cases of the contagious disease, 826 of which were severe, local health authorities said. So far, 23,161 have recovered.

Hospitals in the province were ordered to reserve enough beds and other resources to prepare for any massive outbreak, and public awareness campaigns have been mounted.

The disease killed 50 children nationwide this year as of April 7, the Ministry of Health said earlier.

According to the ministry, the disease was mainly reported in rural areas and nearly 80 percent of the total cases were in 10 provinces and autonomous regions including Shandong, Henan, Jiangsu, Guangxi and Zhejiang.

Zhang Jing, an official in charge of intestinal infection prevention with China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention has said that the disease would not spread nationwide as it was not mainly transmitted through respiratory systems like SARS, measles and other highly-infectious diseases.

Hand-foot-mouth disease is a common illness that mainly affects children under the age of 10. Symptoms include fever, sores in the mouth and a rash with blisters. It can sometimes be fatal if complications occur. May and July are peak periods for the disease.

(Xinhua News Agency April 28, 2009)