What is HFMD? We always heard this acronym but do you know what is
it stands for? HFMD or Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease is a contagious illness caused
by a group of viruses. It spreads through direct contact with the saliva,
blister fluid or faeces of an infected person. This disease commonly happens in
infants and children below 5 years old as they do not yet have the immunity to
the viruses that cause HFMD. Even though it is often referred to young
children, this disease can also happen to older children and adults.
HFMD is usually not severe, and most people even without getting
medical treatment can recover in 7 to 10 days. However, there are some rare cases
that an infected person can develop viral meningitis which need to be
hospitalized for a few days. Besides, other rare complications such as
encephalitis (brain inflammation) or polio-like paralysis may be fatal.
This disease may happen to a person not only once as it is caused
by several different viruses. Furthermore, when someone gets HFMD, they will
develop their immunity or protection to the specific virus that caused their
infection.
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Diagram
1: Number of HFMD Cases by State
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Based on the diagram above, the number of HFMD cases by state in
Malaysia was recorded from 1st of January until 1st of
August in 2018. In eight months only, the total number of HFMD cases were
41,798 cases. The state that recorded the highest number of HFMD cases was
Selangor with 12,465 cases. Meanwhile, the lowest number of HFMD cases was
recorded by Perlis with only 255 cases.
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