KUALA LUMPUR – Out of 65,535 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) reported this year as of Saturday, only three were admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) wards so far, according to Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said the first and second cases were admitted to the ICU due to complications of encephalitis and were confirmed to be infected with the EV71 virus, while the third case was admitted to the ICU for monitoring after abdominal surgery.
“The third case has been transferred to the regular ward on May 27 for further monitoring, while the first and second cases are still under close monitoring in the ICU,” he said in a statement here today.
Dr Noor Hisham said as of the last day of the 21st epidemiological week (last Saturday), a total of 65,535 cases of HFMD were reported, which is a 27-fold increase compared with 2,333 cases recorded in the same period last year.
Selangor still has the highest number of cases at 18,525 cases (28.27%), followed by Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya with 8,088 cases (12.34%), Perak with 5,810 cases (8.87%), Kelantan with 4,905 cases (7.48%) and Sabah with 4,077 cases (6.22%).
Dr Noor Hisham said a total of 1,505 HFMD outbreaks were reported in Malaysia so far, with three states recording the highest number, namely Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (502 outbreaks or 33.4%), followed by Selangor (172 outbreaks or 11.4%) and Perak (168 outbreaks or 11.2%).
“The majority of the outbreaks occurred in child nurseries, kindergartens and preschools (913 outbreaks or 61%) followed by private homes (526 outbreaks or 35%) and also childcare centres (51 outbreaks or 3%),” he said.
Outbreaks appear to be exacerbated during the incubation period of HFMD.
Dr Noor Hisham stressed the importance of gatekeeping screenings on children at nurseries, kindergartens and preschools, as well as other early childhood education centres, to detect symptoms of infectious diseases including HFMD.
He said, as of May 29, a total of 1,174 nurseries, kindergartens and preschools were closed, 228 of which did so voluntarily, and 946 premises were closed under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988.
Of the total, 715 premises (61%) have been reopened after inspections by the respective District Health Offices found that disinfection measures and other preventive controls had been implemented by the owners, he said. – Bernama, May 31, 2022
