Killer EV71 Virus Re-Emerges In Sarawak

KUCHING, Feb 24 (Bernama) -- The deadly Enterovirus71 (EV71) that has gripped the nation in 1997 has emerged again in Sarawak this year claiming one life so far and forcing one kindergarten here to be closed for two weeks since Wednesday.
Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said as of now there were three-deaths associated with the Hand, Foot and Mouth (HFM) disease and samples had been collected for laboratory testing at the Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) to find the exact cause of the death.
"One was positive EV71 while samples from the other two children were negative for EV71," he told a news conference here Friday.
As a necessary precaution, Dr Chan said one kindergarten was asked to close by the Sarawak Health Department to avoid a possible outbreak.
"We want to break the cycle, if one child has HFM symptom and then one week later, either one or two children are infected with the same symptom, we will close the kindergarten temporarily," he said.
Dr Chan said the Health Department would monitor the situation very closely but advised the parents not to panic and that they should practice high standard of hygiene.
Dr Chan said three major towns in Sarawak registered a sharp increase of HFM's reported case since Jan 1 to Feb 23 this year, with the highest reported cases in Sibu.
"The number of cases from Sibu reported are 436 this year compared to 80 cases in the same period last year," he said adding that for Kuching there were 118 cases this year compared to 41 last year while in Bintulu, there were 211 cases this year from 13 last year.
For other towns in Sarawak, Dr Chan said there was no sharp increase in cases recorded so far.
In 1997, a total of 31 children below five-years old were killed in a span of more than one month and clinical tests had confirmed that the death of 29 children were due to EV71 while the rest HFM-related disease.