A Dream for a Better World

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is the infectious disease caused by intestinal virus and kids below 5 years old are the main sufferers. Kids suffering from the disease have herpes in mouth, oral cavity and on the feet. Some patients have other complications such as myocardities, pulmonary edema and aseptic meningoencephalitis etc and a small number of kids die of hand-foot-and-mouth disease. How is the fatal disease infected among people? Firstly, when people have intimate contact and the virus will be spread the infected towel, handkerchief and other small items. Public instrument can also transmission the virus. Secondly, secretions from the throat can transmission virus. Thirdly, people also can be infected by the disease when they use the water or food which is used by patients. Fourthly, people eat the food which is bitten by flies with virus.
Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is the global infectious disease and most countries all over the world ever have some report about the disease. In 1957, New Zealand first reported the disease. In 1958, coxsackie virus was separated and in 1959, the disease was named HMFD. The pathogens of hand-foot-and-mouth disease were Cox A16 after research in early times. In 1970s, EV71 was found related with hand-foot-and mouth disease and in 1972, EV71 was first confirmed in USA. Afterwards, Cox A16 and EV71 appeared alternately. In the year 1972,1973, 1986 and 1999, EV71 ever appeared in Australia. In the middle of 1970s, EV71 was popular in Bulgaria where 750 people suffered from the disease, 149 people were paralyzed and 44 people died and Hungary. in 1994, 952 patients who suffered from the disease were found in England. Japan is the country where people ever suffered from hand-foot-and-mouth disease many times. From the year 1969 to 1970, people are mainly infected by Cox A16. In 1973 and 1978, EV71 was popular. From 1997 to 2000, the disease came to Japan again and both Cox A16 and EV71 could be found. At the end of 1990s, the terrible disease started to arrive in east Asia countries. In 1997, people in Malaysia suffered from the disease and 2628 people from April to August were infected by the virus. In 1981, hand-foot-and-mouth disease was found in Shanghai, China and then it spread to other provinces. At present, hand-foot-and-mouth disease is found in Guangzhou, China. According to some survey, a doctor can receive 30 patients every day. The disease appears every two or three years and in 2008, it has already shown the peak and the spreading seems to continue. Hand-foot-and-mouth disease has obvious seasonal features. From April to July last year, it showed the peak and from October to November, it showed the peak again. In this year, the disease seems to arrive in advance.
As for the fatal disease, both people themselves and kindergartens and primary school should take some precaution pressures. Parents should help kids wash hands before and after dinner, keep all items of kids clean and deal with daily pollutants properly. Parents should not let kids drink raw water, take kids to crowed places and when they find kids not well, they should take kids to hospital as soon as possible. Kindergartens and primary school should also keep the environment clean and sterilize all instruments for kids. In addition, hospitals should also sterilize all items and make patients separate from healthy people.

On November 1, 2009, China World Hotel embraced the 2009 International Boarding School Fair in Beijing. Hundreds and thousands of parents attended with their teenage kids. Although Beijing welcomed it’s first snow of 2009 on the day, the hall with the fair going on was extremely hot with too much crowd as well as too much enthusiasm from both parts: the parents eager to consult and find their children the “best” schools while the representatives from North American secondary schools trying their best to convince the parents that they are the very one being sought.

The schools were unexceptionally boasting their colorfulness in terms of how many international students they enrolled, and their specialties in arts, sports and many other fields. The parents looked over each stand present, asking the most concerned questions, such as how much the tuition is, how the children are settled in the boarding schools, how their children can be helped and can receive individual attention. But the kids’ eyes full of curiosity and bewilderment, and some with excitement as well, it seemed that they had no exact idea what they were going to experience in the near future to come.

Though some parents in Beijing are well-being enough to pay more 200,000 RMB each year for their kids to study overseas (which is 20 times more than the regular tuition for high school or even university education), the real question behind the parents should be thinking about is whether this really fits their children. After all, they are just 13 to 17 years old. To attend a secondary school and maybe later a university overseas means that the children have to be kept apart from their families for 4 years or even longer. When they are not mentally and physically matured enough, staying in an exotic culture with no parents around may cause some problems in their growing up. In this day and age when it is difficult sometimes for even adults to cope with cultural shock despite their mature cultural cultivation, children will definitely run into similar situations, not to mention that they are not mature yet. The potential sense of isolation, homesickness and loneliness will likely to outweigh all possible gains.

So it is really recommended for the parents to think over and make sure it is the right decision to make before they send their children to a secondary school thousands of miles away. Although education maybe a different case, it is not always a good idea to seek far and wide for what lies close at hand. My tip: stay cool to the rush!