KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 10 — The Health Ministry announced today two new cases of acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) in Sabah, bringing the total to three in the country.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the two afflicted children were non-Malaysian who had not been vaccinated against polio prior to contracting the virus.

He said fecal and genetic tests conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) Polio Regional Reference Laboratory in Australia came back yesterday, and showed a genetic relation to the same viral strain that broke out in the Philippines last year and which was detected in Malaysia’s first case involving a three-month-old boy in Sabah’s Tuaran district early last month.

He said the first new case is an 11-year old boy in Kinabatangan who was struck with fever last November 17 and was initially treated at a clinic before being transferred to a hospital after he complained of back pain and was unable to walk.

The second case is an eight-year old in Sandakan who had a three-day fever starting last December 9 and could not walk.

"All patients are still being treated in the hospital and are in a stable condition,” he said in a statement.

He said health officials have examined a total of 705 residents in the areas where both children lived with their families, and no further AFP cases have been detected.

He added that health officials have since immunised 65 children in those areas against polio.

Dr Noor Hisham also said the government will be forming a central level working committee and state level working committee to counter the current polio outbreak in Malaysia, after a joint meeting involving the Health Ministry and the National Security Council chaired by the deputy prime minister.

"The meeting also agreed to cross-border cooperation with the Philippines Health Ministry, and strengthening collaboration with WHO and the United Nations Children’s Fund to ensure the immunisation coverage for Filipino children in Sabah can be increased.

"As well as this, community advocacy needs to be increased so that parents can be more aware of the importance of immunisation. The meeting also agreed that immunisation monitoring as early as the kindergarten level needs to be conducted so as to ensure children can be protected with complete vaccination as advised by the ministry,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham urged the public to take preventive measures as advised by the ministry.

Polio, a viral and crippling disease affecting largely children, returned to Malaysia after 17 years in December last year.

Despite public concern over a growing local anti-vaccination movement, the Health Ministry said there are no plans to make immunisation mandatory as practised in other countries.

Worldwide, outbreaks were reported to largely affect Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.