KUALA LUMPUR: Only three out of 65,535 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) reported as of May 28 have been admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) so far, says Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic).

       He said two patients were admitted to the ICU owing to complications of encephalitis and were confirmed to be infected with EV71, while the third case was admitted for monitoring after abdominal surgery.

       "The third case was transferred to a regular ward on May 27 for further monitoring, while the first and second cases are still under close watch in the ICU,” he said in a statement on Tuesday (May 31).

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       Dr Noor Hisham said the 65,535 cases reported up to the end of the 21st epidemiological week were a 27-fold increase from only 2,333 cases in the same period last year.

       Selangor still has the highest number of cases at 18,525 (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 outbreaks were reported in Malaysia so far with three states and territories recording the most, namely Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (502 outbreaks, 33.4%), followed by Selangor (172 outbreaks, 11.4%) and Perak (168 outbreaks, 11.2%).

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       "The majority of the outbreaks occurred in nurseries, kindergartens and preschools (913 outbreaks, 615), followed by private homes (526, or 35%) and childcare centres (51, or 3%)or three per cent),” 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.

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       He said as of Sunday (May 29), a total of 1,174 nurseries, kindergartens and preschools had been closed, 228 of their own accord while 946 were closed under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988.

       Of the total, 715 premises (61%) had since reopened after inspections by the relevant district Health Offices found that appropriate measures and controls had been implemented by the owners, he added. – Bernama