Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said on Saturday an outbreak of a child virus which has claimed three lives was under control and told the population not to panic, reported (AFP)
Abdullah, quoted by the national news agency Bernama, said the hand, foot and mouth disease was epidemic only in the southern state of Johor, bordering Singapore, where more than 400 cases had been reported.
"The disease is serious only in Johor... as this area is close to Singapore where the incidence of the disease was first disclosed, while the situation elsewhere in Malaysia is under control and there is no danger," he said.
Abdullah withdrew a directive Friday by National Unity and Social Development Minister Zaharah Sulaiman to close more than 3,000 government child care centres and kindergartens nationwide.
"I understand that Siti Zaharah issued the directive as a precautionary measure but then the public may think that the disease had spread to the whole country," he said.
The health ministry was keeping a close watch on the situation and would submit a report to the cabinet next week, he added.
Three children have now died in the latest outbreak in Malaysia.
The disease mostly attacks children aged under five. Symptoms include fever, sore throat, headache, loss of appetite, ulcers in the throat and mouth and rashes on the hands and feet and genitalia.
In Singapore, four children have died and more than 1,000 others have been infected by the highly contagious virus.
An outbreak of the virus left 50 children dead in the Malaysian state of Sarawak in 1997 and 78 died from the virus in Taiwan in 1998.
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