Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this was an increase of 20 times the number of cases in the same period last year.

There is a 106.6% increase in HFMD cases from the previous week, up from 7,526 to 15,548.

Most of the cases (93%) were among children aged six and below, while 6% were among those aged between seven and 12, he said in a statement today.

The majority of the cases were in Selangor at 29.9%, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya at 13.1%, Perak (8.7%), Kelantan (7.9%) and Sabah (7.1%).

Noor Hisham also disclosed that three main types of viruses that cause HFMD in the community have been identified since the beginning of 2022. They are Coxsackie A16 (CA16), Coxsackie A6 (CA6) and Enterovirus 71 (EV71).

“Two HFMD patients tested positive for EV71 and are being monitored in the ICU for having brain inflammation (encephalitis). Both cases involve children under six,” he said.

To date, a total of 1,168 outbreaks have been reported in Malaysia with Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya recording the highest outbreak at 413 (35.4%), followed by Selangor at 143 (12.2%) and Perak at 130 (11.1%).

The majority of the outbreaks occurred in nurseries, kindergartens and preschools.

Yesterday, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya health department director Dr Nor’ Aishah Abu Bakar said 6,197 HFMD cases were recorded up until the epidemiological week 20 (EW20), which ended on May 21.

Only 403 cases were recorded during the same period last year.