HAND, FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE

HAND, FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE: * * *

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(Enforcement and control): **

16.

Ms Ellen Lee asked the Minister for Health why the enforcement and control of hand, foot and mouth disease cases are not extended to private education providers for toddlers, young children and religious schools such as Sunday school in churches.

Mr Khaw Boon Wan: Hand Foot Mouth Disease (HFMD) is a notifiable disease. By law, a doctor is required to report all cases of HFMD to my Ministry, including information such as the childcare centre or the school the child is attending. We investigate all clusters of HFMD cases to determine the extent of disease transmission and whether the institutions should be closed to contain the infection. If a cluster were reported in a school run by a private or a religious provider as described by Ms Ellen Lee, we will investigate.

In practice, given the longer exposure time and greater intensity of interaction, transmission risk is higher in the following institutions and they have therefore administrative arrangements to report their HFMD clusters to my Ministry:

(a) All childcare centres under the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports;

(b) All playgroups under the People's Association; and

(c) All kindergartens, special education schools, primary schools, secondary schools, junior colleges, religious schools, private regular schools and foreign system schools under the Ministry of Education.

This arrangement will cover almost all of the children who are cared for outside of their homes.

HFMD is spread through direct contact with the bodily secretions of an infected person or indirectly through contact with contaminated items. Children may be infectious before they show any symptoms. A significant proportion of infected children remain asymptomatic, but they are also infectious. The risk of transmission will therefore exist whenever children congregate and if good hygiene is not practised.

The only way to prevent transmission is to maintain a high standard of personal and environmental hygiene. Parents have an important role to play: set personal example of good hygiene standard, teach the children to do the same, and keep them at home should they fall sick.

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