THE number of hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) cases continues to fall for the fourth week running. Last week, 665 people caught it - a 9 per cent drop from 729 in the previous week, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

In the three preceding weeks, the numbers had dropped by 15 to 25 per cent each week. But a Health Ministry spokesman cautioned against complacency, as last week's patient count still exceeded the epidemic level of 565.

'While the number of HFMD cases has been declining in recent weeks, it is still high,' she said.

At the peak of the epidemic in April, 1,466 cases of this usually mild illness - which causes fever, mouth ulcers and rashes on the palms, soles and buttocks - surfaced in a week.

To stop the disease from spreading, the ministry ordered 28 schools to close, and urged another 81 to consider doing so.

Last week marked the first week in which schools closed for a month-long break, which could have cut down on children passing the bug on to others.

Nine of the newly diagnosed patients last week had to be hospitalised, mainly because they had feeding problems caused by the disease.

This brings the total tally of HFMD patients this year to 14,063, of whom 177 had to be admitted to hospital.

EV71, the virus that causes the most severe form of the illness, was behind 32 per cent of the patients' illnesses. It also caused three children to develop encephalitis, or inflammation of the brain lining, this year.

The only one who is still hospitalised, three-month-old Muhammad Hafiz Badrulhisham, is in a stable condition, said the Health Ministry.

He was transferred last Wednesday from the intensive care unit to the high dependency ward in KK Women's and Children's Hospital (KKH).

A 10-year-old boy was discharged from KKH last Thursday. The first to fall severely ill from the virus this year, seven-year-old Sharmaine Lee, has fully recovered.