Take our advice, get treatment

NST: The hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) situation in Sarawak may improve in the next two weeks, Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan said today, even as he disclosed another death.
"Hopefully we can turn it round by March 26," he added.
March 26 is the end of the one-week "extended holidays" for all pupils in Standards One to Three in Sarawak.
"There is a good chance the disease will be over if people take our advice seriously."
Dr Chan said it was important for a child to seek immediate treatment.
"Sometimes the fever may look innocent but things could change for the worse quickly," he added as the state health department deputy director Dr Andrew Kiyu said it took only four days for the HFMD to cause a child’s death.
The latest to die from the epidemic is a two-year-old boy from Rumah Mamat longhouse along Sungai Belawai.
The boy, admitted into Kapit Hospital at noon yesterday, died at 2.50am.
His death now brings the toll to eight, including two who succumbed to Enterovirus 71 (EV71) virus, since the outbreak early this year.
The boy is the second case reported along the river and though they came from different longhouses, they had both attended the same school.
The number of new cases reported until 10am today is 167: Mukah (37), Sibu (30), Kuching (27), and Bintulu and Miri (14 each).
Despite the deaths and two girls — one a three-year-old, the other a one-year-old — from Kapit reported "seriously ill", the epidemic has not triggered panic-fleeing by parents with young children, Dr Chan said.
"Not that I have heard," he added.
Dr Chan said there was also no reason why more classes in primary schools should be closed even though "older children" could carry the infections back home to the younger ones.
"This could mean the closure of all schools even secondary schools," he explained adding, "We do not want that."
"Since the HFMD is only affecting children under 12, we only concentrate on the most vulnerable age group."