The Need for a Vaccine Against Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease in Malaysia

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a contagious viral infection, which commonly affects young children under five years of age (Yu et al., 2019). HFMD is caused by serotypes of the Enterovirus A species, particularly enterovirus 71 (EV71) and coxsackievirus A16 (CVA16), in the genus Enterovirus (Takahashi et al., 2016). Symptoms of HFMD usually include fever, sore throat and maculopapular or vesicular rashes on hands, feet and mouth, which resolve spontaneously. On the other hand, severe HFMD, which is often associated with EV71 infection, can lead to life-threatening cardiopulmonary and neurologic complications (Xu et al., 2015).