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FIRST ON 7: A killer virus that has already claimed the lives of four young children may not be as new to Australia as health officials claim.

After our story on aired last night, a mother contacted 7News revealing her son died from enterovirus 71, three years ago.

Sarah Williams remembers well what happened to her little boy Connor, as he went from happy and smiling, to sick in hospital.

"Pretty much from Thursday onwards he got lethargic, by Saturday he couldn't stand up properly, Ms Williams said.

By Sunday, Connor was dead, aged 18 months. Two weeks later the coroner revealed he had died from enterovirus 71.

That was in 2010, three years before health officials acknowledged EV71 had arrived in Australia.

"They didn't do enough to save my son, they just, you know 'he's got a cold, he'll be right,".

GP's describe it as hand, foot and mouth disease 'on steroids'.

"It is scary it's terrifying because this is a garden variety illness that we're used to seeing many times a day all of a sudden becoming this potential killer," resident Sunrise GP Dr Ginni Mansberg said.

It's been linked to four deaths in New South Wales since December.

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Deadly enterovirus 71 'not so new'