Docs in Sarawak have to report HFM disease

Star: KUCHING: The hand, foot and mouth (HFM) disease, which has affected more than 13,000 children in Sarawak this year, will be made a 'notifiable disease.'
Medical practitioners are required to report suspected cases of notifiable diseases to the health authorities. There are now more than 25 such diseases in the country.
Kuala Lumpur Hospital paediatrician and infectious diseases consultant Dr Kamarul Azahar Mohd Razali said the Health Ministry had already agreed to this move.
“Hopefully it will be gazetted by the end of the year,” he added.
Dr Kamarul and other experts, including Sungai Buloh Hospital infectious disease head Dr Christopher Lee, are now in Sarawak to study the second wave of the HFM disease outbreak.
The experts, together with Deputy Chief Minister Tan Sri Dr George Chan Hong Nam, were briefed on the disease’s latest trend by the state Health Department at Merdeka Palace here on Thursday.
According to Dr Lee, Sarawak has done extremely well in controlling the disease and is winning the battle.
Dr Chan noted that the second wave was not a phenomenon peculiar to Sarawak as Singapore had also seen a similar trend.
He said the number of new cases detected in Singapore from July 23 to 29 – the 30th week of the outbreak – had exceeded the critical level of 342, and the island republic had recorded a cumulative 9,176 cases up to the end of that week.
“Close monitoring of the present situation in Sarawak has indicated the beginning of a downward trend based on the daily figures for reported cases,” he added.