Sarawak Acts To Check Spread Of HFMD To Interior Areas

KUCHING, March 17 (Bernama) -- Sarawak will use its "flying doctor" service and launch an information blitz next week to check the spread of the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) to the interior areas of the state, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said Friday.
He said there were indications that the HFMD, which has killed eight children under five years of age since the outbreak last month, was beginning to spread to the interior areas, with Mukah and Kapit recording 45 and nine new cases respectively as at 10 am Friday.
A total of 187 new cases were reported in the state as at 10 am Friday, he said, adding that they included the 45 cases in Mukah and 41 in Miri, 29 in Sibu, 18 in Kuching and 11 in Bintulu.
Forty of the new cases had been admitted to hospital as at 10 am Friday, bringing to 80 the number under treatment in hospitals. Up to 5,181 children had been infected since the current outbreak in Sibu last month.
Dr Chan said the State Health Department would instruct the flying doctor service, which currently conducts routine health inspections in the interior areas, to look for HFMD symptoms in the people.
The flying doctor service, introduced in the 70s, brings medical treatment to the people scattered about in the interior areas, facilitated currently with the use of three helicopters.
Dr Chan also said that the state government would step up efforts to inform the people in the interior areas to help check the spread of the disease through the mass media, particularly radio and newspapers.
"We are going to increase the number of talks and give more information on HFMD through the radio, especially in Bahasa Iban and Bidayuh so more people in the rural areas will understand more," he said.
Dr Chan, who is Chairman of the State Disaster and Aid Management Committee, said the State Health Department would adopt several measures to check the spread of the HFMD in the state.
One of these was increasing the number of health staff and doctors stationed at hospitals in the state, including bringing three specialists from Peninsular Malaysia, he said.
He also said that 12 more health teams would be established to bring the number of such teams to 100 in the effort to monitor the hand, food and mouth cases.
Asked whether there was any traditional medication for the HFMD, Dr Chan said he would advise parents and guardians to take children suspected of suffering from the disease to hospitals for treatment.