KUALA LUMPUR – The hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) in Malaysia has increased 20 times this year, compared to 2021.
Director-General (DG) of Health, Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah said that 47,209 cases of HFMD have been reported this year as of the last Epidemiology Week (ME) 20/2022 on 21 May.
“In 2021 up to the similar ME, only 2,237 cases were reported, meanwhile, for ME20/2022, 15,548 cases were reported compared to ME19/2022, there were only 7,526 cases nationwide, an increment of 106.6 percent,” he said in a statement today.
According to Dr Noor Hisham, Selangor contributed to the highest number of infections in the country with 13,640 cases (28.9 percent).
It is followed by the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (6,206), Perak (4,099), Kelantan (3,726) and Sabah (3,352).
Meanwhile, other states contributed less than 2,500 cases.
However, the increment was expected following the movement of Malaysians during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration.
Elaborating further, the Health DG said that three main viruses which caused the HFMD disease in the community in 2022 are Coxsackie A16 (CA16), Coksackie A6 (CA6) and Enterovirus 71 (EV71).
Meanwhile, two cases of HFMD positive with EV71 have been admitted into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) due to encephalitis (inflammation of the brain).
“Both cases involved children below the age of six,” he said. -MalaysiaGazette
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