ISKANDAR PUTERI, June 19 — A total of 6,987 hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) cases have been reported from early this year until yesterday, compared with 104 cases during the same period last year, the Johor State Assembly was told today.

State Health and Unity Committee chairman Ling Tian Soon said that most of the cases occurred among children aged six and below, with 6,048 cases (86.6 per cent).

He said this was followed by children aged seven to 12, with 816 cases (11.7 per cent), and the rest were those aged 13 and above.

To date, he said that five active HFMD outbreaks were reported in Johor, involving the Kota Tinggi district (two), Johor Bahru (two) and Batu Pahat (one), compared with 28 active HFMD outbreaks reported in the previous epidemiological week (ME).

"As of yesterday, there are 100 HFMD outbreaks in Johor involving nurseries (42 outbreaks), private homes (22), tabika (13), tadika (nine), pre-school (seven), primary schools (three), day care centres (two) and others (two).

"Nevertheless, this situation is still under control. This is proven by the significant drop in the HFMD cases trend reported in the state, starting at ME 22 until ME 24; from 1,491 cases in ME 22 to 1,090 cases in ME 23 and the latest, 663 cases in ME 24,” he said.

He said this in his reply to an oral question at the second meeting of the First Session of the 15th Johor State Assembly, at the Sultan Ismail Building here today.

On monkeypox, Ling said that no case was reported in Malaysia to date.

"Nevertheless, the Johor Health Department is always in a state of readiness, based on the strategic plan to face the risk of the entry of Monkeypox to Malaysia by the Ministry of Health, based on the recommendations from the World Health Organisation,” said Ling (BN-Yong Peng).

He said this when replying to a question, from Datuk Ramlee Bohani (BN-Kempas), on the efforts and measures taken by the state government to curb the spread of infectious diseases such as HFMD and monkeypox among children, and whether the state health facilities were prepared if the diseases spread drastically. — Bernama