Two viruses likely causes of 1997 HFM disease outbreak
Sarawak Medical Department director Dr. Yao Sik Chi today confirmed that the Atlanta-based Centre for Disease Control and Prevention study indicated that the 1997 outbreak of Hand, Foot and Mouth (HFM) disease in Sarawak was "most probably" caused by Enterovirus 71 and Adenovirus.
He said the "most probably" conclusion was arrived at as "very few post mortems had been done on the cases".
"Scientifically, we cannot be 100 per cent certain about the virus as we don't have adequate and sufficient evidences," he told malaysiakini .
Yao said that normally the HFM disease is caused by Coxsackie A 16, Enterovirus 71 and Echovirus.
Deputy Chief Minister Dr. George Chan Hong Nam yesterday refuted some recent press reports in Sarawak linking the death of the two children in Kuching to the HFM disease.
Yao reaffirmed that the two cases were not related at all with HFM disease.
The public have been reassured by the Health Ministry that there have been no deaths resulting from HFM disease, in spite of 482 cases reported in Sarawak since January. There were only 65 cases reported in the state in all of 1999.
However, Yao also clarified that nine children had died in Miri since January, seven were attributed to "normal" causes and only two showed a similar pattern to the outbreak two years ago where the children succumbed to heart failure.
He stressed that the Health Ministry does not know the actual cause of the deaths of the two children as they need to wait for the Universiti Sarawak Malaysia to culture the virus.
"It takes about two to three months to identify the virus," Yao said.
In mid-1997, an outbreak blamed on the Coxsackie virus took the lives of 31 children under five years old, with 911 treated at hospitals and clinics.
A total of 3,334 children were treated nationwide for this viral infection. The outbreak also put the country on medical alert, forcing the temporary closure of nurseries and swimming pools in Sarawak.
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