It is important to note that epidemiological curves showing HFMD alone, without distinguishing the infecting agent for each case, can stretch broadly over many months, with non-HEV71 enteroviruses continuing to be isolated after cessation of HEV71 activity. This was especially evident in 2000, when HEV71 associated fatal cases were reported in neighbouring Singapore in September and October 2000 [29] , and the media attention surrounding these events generated a high index of suspicion in Sarawak as well. No HEV71 was isolated in Sarawak after August that year, but numerous CVA16 continued to be isolated until the end of 2000. Thus even though sociological factors affect the shape of the HFMD epidemiological curves in Sarawak, epidemiological curves specifically showing genogroup B strains of HEV71 were consistently sharp and well defined in 2000 and 2003. The mean and median age of children with HFMD was 36 months and 30 months respectively, but the mean ages did not differ between the groups infected with the different serotypes. It is thus intriguing that HEV71 has caused much larger and sharper outbreaks than either CVA16 or CVA10. This suggests that HEV71 has the capacity to spread rapidly through the susceptible population and then become quiescent in the community. In the third year after any HEV71 outbreak, the whole cohort of children under 3 years of age has not been exposed to HEV71 and all of these children are then susceptible, providing the conditions for another sweeping transmission of HEV71 through the community. The annual birth cohort in Sarawak is 48 to 49 thousand and thus in 3 years there are up to 150,000 susceptible children in the state.