Action to be taken against child care centres, premises with high HFMD cases

KUALA LUMPUR: Action will be taken against premises that record a high number of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), Health Minister Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said today.
He said no actions have been taken so far, but the ministry would act against these premises, especially child care centres.
"On the aspect of taking down statistics and numbers, we have to record them down properly. And if we find any child care centres or any other premises to have frequent cases of HFMD, actions have to be taken," he said in the Dewan Rakyat, here, today.
"This is because this epidemic outbreak is closely related to hygiene and cleanliness. So we may have to look at what kind of actions we will take".
Dzulkefly was responding to a supplementary question by Wong Kah Woh (PH-Ipoh Timur) on whether the ministry records the frequency of HFMD cases in all registered child care centres in the country and if actions would be taken against recording high figures.
On the number of HFMD cases, Dzulkefly said the ministry recorded 39,408 cases between Jan 1 and July 29 this year.
He said Selangor remained the state with the highest number of cases with 11,669, followed by the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur (4,552), Sarawak (4,551), Perak (3,002), Penang (2,816) and Johor (2,475).
To date, there have been two recorded deaths related to the disease, the first being a 17-month-old boy who died in Penang on June 6.
A two years and five months old toddler also succumbed to HFMD in Mukah, Sarawak on July 28.