All government kindergartens and nurseries nationwide were warned Sunday to take precautionary measures to check a potentially fatal child virus when they reopened on Monday, reported (AFP)
Some 3,000 government child care centers and kindergartens were ordered to temporarily close Friday following the outbreak of the hand, foot and mouth disease, which had killed three children nationwide.
Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi on Saturday said the virus was under control and that pre-schools should re-open, except in the southern state of Johor, where some 500 cases had been reported.
National Unity and Social Development Minister Siti Zaharah Sulaiman, who issued the closure order earlier, said Sunday that pre-schools would reopen Monday except for those in Johor, on the border of Singapore.
"However, all the kindergartens and nurseries must take precautionary measures to comply with the directive by the health ministry to check the spread of the disease," she was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.
The Sunday Star newspaper said there appeared to be "some uncertainty and lack of focus and coordination" among government departments in handling the virus outbreak.
It said the public was confused with conflicting statements by authorities over the matter and called for the real facts of the situation to be issued.
Three children have now died in the latest outbreak in Malaysia.
The disease mostly attacks children aged under five. Symptoms include fever, sore throat, headache, loss of appetite, ulcers in the throat and mouth and rashes on the hands and feet and genitalia.
In Singapore, four children have died and more than 1,000 others have been infected by the highly contagious virus.
An outbreak of the virus left 50 children dead in the Malaysian state of Sarawak in 1997 and 78 died from the virus in Taiwan in 1998 – (AFP)
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