Killer virus spreads to new areas in Malaysia, abates in Singapore

Kindergarten students at a playground in Kuala Lumpur

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A viral disease that is mostly attacking children spread Friday to new areas of Malaysia, killing a three-year-old boy in the capital and terrifying some parents into keeping their children away from kindergartens.

The death in Kuala Lumpur's University Malaya Medical Center on Thursday brought to three the number of children killed by the hand, foot and mouth disease. Four children have also died in neighboring Singapore, but the disease there appears to be on the wane.

The affliction, which spreads via contamination with infected body fluids, is thought to have moved from Singapore to the southern Malaysian state of Johor, and then to other northern areas.

One death was reported in Johor and the other in the northern state of Kedah. The New Straits Times newspaper, which reported the latest death, did not identify the victim, but said he was the son of a Pakistani expatriate.

As fears of a wider epidemic spread, some schools in Kuala Lumpur canceled scheduled swimming events. But there was no directive from the government to prevent large gatherings of children to avoid contagion.

Many worried parents on Friday kept their children from nurseries and a federal health official said an emergency center had been created to monitor the spread of the disease. Schools or kindergartens could be ordered shut if the outbreak persisted, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"There is a very high incidence of absenteeism. A lot of parents are very worried," said Siew Yan, executive administrator of Children's House, a group of pre-schools catering to kids from affluent families.

At one of the Children's House branches, the normal attendance of 56 toddlers was down to about 20, staff said. Doctors have been to the schools to brief the staff on the disease and how to prevent its spread.

Health authorities in Johor ordered all kindergartens and nursery schools to close Wednesday for at least two weeks. One day later, they declared that the disease had reached an alarming level with the number of suspected hand, foot and mouth cases at 137. Seventeen new cases were admitted to hospitals on Wednesday, The Star daily said.

As of Thursday, 1,725 cases of the viral disease had been reported in Singapore and nine children were in hospital. But the outbreak appeared to be declining.

The city state, which is separated from Johor by a thin strip of water, announced late Thursday it was reopening its kindergartens and pre-schools next week. Wading pools and public playing areas in shopping centers and fast-food areas would remain closed until further notice.

Symptoms of the disease include fever, sore throat and blistering rashes on the hands and feet. It can be spread through direct contact with nasal discharge, saliva, feces and fluid from the blisters.

The disease is not usually life-threatening but can sometimes involve potentially fatal complications such as meningitis, encephalitis and inflammation of the heart muscles.

More than 50 children died in Taiwan during an outbreak in 1998 and another 30 were killed in the eastern Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo island in 1997.

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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