Singapore - Eight more preschools have been urged to temporarily close after another 540 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease were reported in a four-day period, health officials said on Tuesday. So far, 11 childcare centres and preschools have been forced to shut down for 10 days while teachers, administrative staff and cleaners scrub the facilities to stem the outbreak.
Others were asked to voluntarily do so. The latest recommendations for closure bring the total to 34.
So far 9,262 people, primarily children, have been affected.
The disinfection is aimed at halting the transmission of the disease, which is spread through saliva, blister fluid, faeces and droplets in the air.
The symptoms are usually mild and include ulcers, rashes and blisters, health officials said, but the emergence of a potentially lethal strain of the virus has added a frightening dimension to the outbreak.
Called enterovirus 71, the strain has caused 19 per cent of the cases so far this year. There is no vaccine.
