Child virus spreads in KL

Child virus spreads in KL

KUALA LUMPUR (AP): A viral disease that is mostly attacking children spread to new areas Friday, killing a three-year-old boy in the Malaysian capital and terrifying some parents into keeping their children away from kindergartens.

The death in Kuala Lumpur's University Malaya Medical Center on Thursday brought to three the number of children killed by the hand, foot and mouth disease that appeared to have spread from Singapore to the southern Malaysian state of Johor and then to other northern areas.

About 40 cases have been reported in Kuala Lumpur this week, said Fuad Hashim, assistant director of the Disease Control Division at the Ministry of Health.

The symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease include fever, sore throat and blistering rashes on the hands and feet. The disease can be spread through direct contact with nasal discharge, saliva, feces and fluid from the blisters.

On Friday, Malaysia closed more than 3,000 government child care centres and kindergartens.