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SINGAPORE: The daily number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) has gone down over the past three days.
From Sunday to Thursday, the number of cases reported is 880, bringing the total number of cases reported since the beginning of the year to 8,440.
Another six pre-schools have also voluntarily chosen to close. They include Catholic Kindergarten at Flower Road, Cheng San PCF Education Centre at Ang Mo Kio Avenue 5, Calvary Baptist Kindergarten at Wan Tho Avenue, Maris Stella Kindergarten at Holland Road, and PCF Ayer Rajah-West Coast, Blk 702.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health had ordered three pre-schools and five childcare centres to close.
These pre-schools and childcare centres will have to close for ten days to break the chain of transmission of the virus. Pre-schools that have been ordered to close will spend the next one and a half weeks disinfecting their premises thoroughly.
While these centres are closed, the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports has strongly advised parents not to place their child in another centre to minimise the possibility of cross-transmission.
Parents are also advised to keep their children at home and not to bring them out to public places.
According to KK Women's and Children's Hospital, although there are more HFMD cases, there have been very few complications among those who are hospitalised.
After recovering from a HFMD infection that was contracted four weeks ago, four-year-old Luis Kok is back at the hospital again with a high fever.
Unlike his previous HFMD episode, this time, Luis has no rashes, ulcers or blisters. But his mother Sheryn Yeo is not taking any chances.
"When he had tonsilitis, we didn't expect it to be HFMD. While he was recovering, I got HFMD. Maybe (it was through) saliva - because I was sharing food with him. Then after that it was my husband who got it," she said.
Doctors said while HFMD is generally a mild childhood disease, adults can be infected too. The infection could also recur if proper hygiene and quarantine measures are not observed. Doctors added that most people recover within a week and only a few need to be hospitalised.
Dr Chong Chia Yin, head and senior consultant of infectious disease at KK Women's and Children's Hospital, said: "Usually we advise hospitalisation if a child has got a change in behaviour - for example, if he feels disorientated or is exceptionally irritable, if there's severe headache, if there's drowsiness."
Although more children are being admitted for HFMD, doctors said it is usually because the child cannot eat and drink well due to the ulcers in the mouth, so they need to be put on drip.
Dr Chong explained: "We're seeing an increasing number of children that are getting admitted for hospitalisation. Most of them get admitted because of poor feeding... so most children actually get admitted for IV drip or rehydration purposes."
"Compared to previous years, there's not much difference. The year 2000 was a more serious outbreak because there were fatal cases. But the death rate is still very very (low), it's only about 0.011 per cent for that particular outbreak in year 2000," Dr Chong added.
There is no vaccine or anti-viral medicine available to treat HFMD, so doctors said prevention is still the best way. - CNA/ac
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