New virus found in Sarawak

New virus found in Sarawak

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): The death toll from a new virus strain in Malaysia's Borneo state of Sarawak has climbed to 19, local newspapers reported on Saturday.

Sarawak state director of medical and health services department, Mohammed Taha Arif was quoted by the papers as saying that two more infants succumbed to the Coxsackie B virus on Thursday.

He said 29 children were in an isolation ward at the general hospital in Sibu, a coastal town in Sarawak state.

The Coxsackie B virus has also struck children in the state capital of Kuching and Sarikei in Sarawak.

The deputy chief minister of Sarawak George Chan Hong Nam said experts from the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta will arrive in Sibu on Monday to assist local health authorities in tackling the infection, which started in April.

Kindergarten schools in Sibu have been ordered to close, while primary schools in the affected areas have been told to consider whether to close down the first three grades of their schools as well.

The virus, which can be carried by air, was originally found in infected food, health officials have said. Symptoms include fever, nervous fits, paralysis and finally heart failure.