Taboos an impediment to curbing disease

NST: Taboos among rural people are hindering the work of medical personnel in curbing the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) that is making its way into the State’s interior.
The disease has been reported among semi-nomadic Penan children in Long Singgu, Belaga, deep in the Kapit Division.
Eight of them contracted the disease and all were warded at the Bintulu hospital on Saturday.
They were reported to be in stable condition yesterday.
A medical team was prevented from ascertaining the cause of death of a three-year-old girl from the Sungai Belawai area in Kapit.
She died on Friday and her family refused permission to conduct tests on her, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said yesterday.
"There were no external signs, but we believe she could have (died from HFMD)," he added.
If confirmed, she would be the ninth to have died of the disease.
Dr Chan said a medical team had flown to her Rumah Bilu longhouse when they received news of the death.
"The team, however, faced resistance from the girl’s family when they wanted to take swabs of the body," Dr Chan said.
He told reporters in Kapit that the girl’s grandmother had earlier refused to have the girl admitted to Kapit hospital.
"They have a lot of taboos and this is only one of many impediments medical teams had to face in trying to check the epidemic there," he added.
Dr Chan said there had been cases of families of the deceased refusing permission for post-mortems.
"While we respect their beliefs, we also try to make them understand why we are doing this," he said.
The Sungai Belawai area has a high number of HFMD cases.
Dr Chan said Universiti Malaysia Sarawak would conduct a study to determine why more children contract the HFMD there than in any other area.
A total of 107 new cases were reported in the State yesterday.
The lower number — it was 187 on Saturday — was attributed to the closure of rural clinics during the weekend.
The new cases bring the total number of children infected with the disease to 6,718.
Sarikei, a few kilometres from Sibu, reported the highest number of new cases with 23.
Some of the other cases were in Limbang (14), Bintulu (13), Kuching (11), Miri (10) and Kapit (eight).