KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has recorded 106,477 cases of the hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD), up to the 24th epidemiology week (ME) from June 12 to 18.

Health director-general, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement today said this was an increase of 39 times compared to the total cases for the same period last year which was during the COVID-19 pandemic with 2,710 cases.

"If compared with 31,500 cases for the same period in 2019 (before COVID-19 pandemic), it showed a 3.4 times increase. The cases reported nationwide for ME 24 was 10.556 cases, a 19.3 per cent fall compared with ME23 with 13,077 cases," he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said Selangor logged the highest cases with 29,880 infections followed by Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (11,687), Perak (10,938), Johor (7,052) and Kelantan (6,532).

According to age, he said 95,175 children aged six and below were infected with HFMD while 9,183 children aged seven to 12 were infected by the disease.

The outbreaks were mostly at nurseries, kindergartens and pre-schools with 1,131 outbreaks or 56 per cent followed by private homes 794 outbreaks (40 per cent) and child care centres 57 outbreaks," he said.

An outbreak is defined as an incident of HFMD with two or more cases in a locality and the cases are epidemiologically related as well as during the incubation period of HFMD.

-- BERNAMA