THERE has been a 9.3% drop in the hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) cases over the past week, the Health Ministry reported.

In a statement, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, said two children are currently in intensive care units.

He said cases also declined from 18,688 infections to 16,954 last week.

Since the outbreak of HFMD earlier this year, a total of 82,846 cases have been recorded to date. This is a 32-fold increase on last year when only 2,485 cases were reported during the same period.

Noor Hisham said the majority of the infections involved children ages six and below, while only 8% were those between seven and 12 years old. 

Selangor reported the majority of cases (28.1%), followed by Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (11.5%), Perak (9.7%), Kelantan (7.5%), and Kelantan (6.9%).

The ministry reported two children in intensive care units, under close observation for contracting encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain.

A third patient was discharged on May 31.

This year, a total of 1,746 outbreaks have been reported in Malaysia, with Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya reporting the most cases (562, or 32.2%), followed by 208 in Selangor (11.9%) and 206 in Sarawak (11.8%).

The majority of outbreaks occurred in nurseries, kindergartens and pre-schools. – June 7, 2022.