A 15-month-old boy became the ninth victim of an epidemic of hand, foot-and-mouth disease in Sarawak, a top health official said.

Sarawak's health director Yao Sik King said the boy died on today. "This is the ninth death that we have had," she told AFP.

The death followed the reopening yesterday and today of all the state's kindergartens and child-care centres, which were ordered closed by Malaysia's health ministry a month ago to curb the spread of the disease.

The illness affects mainly infants and young children, causing painful mouth and throat ulcers, fever and blisters on hands and feet.

Yao said that 7,858 people had been infected with the disease this year.

More cases this week

She said despite a "down trend" that more cases had been recorded this week as officials stepped-up checks.

"We will be monitoring the situation very closely because if we do find the child-care centres are still having two or more cases, we may close again. But the closures will probably be individual, as each case merits," she said.

The health ministry on March 3 ordered the closure of all 488 kindergartens and child-care centres in Sarawak.

Sarawak has been hit periodically by the disease. In the worst outbreak in 1997 it recorded 31 fatalities.