CASES of the hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) doubled this week to 15,548, a 106.6% increase from last week’s 7,526, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said. 

This is 20 times more than the cases for the same epidemiology week last year, which only recorded 2,237 cases. 

Dr Noor Hisham said there have been 47,209 HFMD infections since the beginning of the year. 

“The increase in cases was expected due to the movement of Malaysians during the Hari Raya celebrations,” he said in a statement. 

“Most of the cases (93%) were among children aged six and below, while 6% were among those aged between seven and 12,” he said. 

The majority of the cases were in Selangor at 29.9%, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya at 13.1%, Perak (8.7%), Kelantan (7.9%) and Sabah (7.1%).

Since the beginning of 2022, three main types of viruses that cause HFMD in the community have been identified, Dr Noor Hisham said. They are Coxsackie A16 (CA16), Coxsackie A6 (CA6), and Enterovirus 71 (EV71).

“Two HFMD patients tested positive for EV71 and are being monitored in the ICU for having brain inflammation (encephalitis). Both cases involve children under six,” he said.

In Malaysia, a total of 1,168 outbreaks have been documented, with Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya having the highest number of outbreaks with 413 (35.4%), Selangor with 143 (12.2%), and Perak with 130 (11.1%).

The majority of these cases occurred in preschool, nurseries and kindergartens. – May 24, 2022.