ONLY three among the 65,535 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) reported as of May 28 this year were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.

He said two cases were in ICU after developing encephalitis and confirmed to be infected with EV71 while the third was in the ward for observation after abdominal surgery.

“The third case was 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.

Noor Hisham said 65,535 cases of HFMD were reported, which was an increase of 27 fold from only 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), Perak with (5,810), Kelantan (4,905), and Sabah (4,077).

Noor Hisham said 1,505 outbreaks were reported in Malaysia. Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya accounted for 502, or 33.4%, of them, followed by Selangor (172) and Perak  (168).

“The majority of the outbreaks occurred in nurseries, kindergartens and pre-schools (913) followed by homes (526) and also childcare centres (51%),” he said.

Outbreaks appear to be exacerbated during the incubation period of HFMD.

Noor Hisham stressed on the importance of gatekeeping screenings at early childhood education centres to detect symptoms of infectious diseases.

He said outbreaks forced the closure of 1,174 nurseries, kindergartens and preschools under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988.

Of the total, 715 buildings (61%) reopened after passing inspection by the District Health Office. – Bernama, May 29, 2022.