The number of patients in Japan suffering from hand, foot and mouth disease has hit its highest level in a decade for this time of year.
The viral disease causes rashes on the hands and feet and sores inside the mouth and elsewhere. It mainly affects young children in summer and in rare cases, it triggers encephalitis and other serious conditions.
Japan's National Institute of Infectious Diseases says 35,960 cases were reported by roughly 3,000 pediatric clinics nationwide in the week ending July 7.
The average number of patients per clinic was up by 3.01 from the previous week to 11.46. This is the largest figure for the period in the past 10 years.
Mine Mahito, a director at the Japan Pediatric Association, says a certain number of children have never had the disease because there have been no major outbreaks in recent years. He says this may be a factor in the rapid spread of the disease at daycare nurseries and kindergartens.
He also says multiple viruses cause the disease, so an individual can get it more than once.
Mine says the outbreak could continue for about another month and is calling for preventive measures, such as handwashing and avoiding contact with saliva.