An Investigation of the Effect of Weather on Hand-Foot Mouth Disease Incidence in Sarawak

Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is consistently present in Malaysia, with a rising number of reported cases. Sabah has encountered multiple outbreaks of this disease. However, detailed information regarding the epidemiology and molecular traits of the viruses responsible for these outbreaks remains limited. This study used two data sets; one dataset was acquired from Data.gov.my, containing HFMD across various Malaysian states. The second dataset was sourced from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and consists of HFMD statistics for Malaysia, including case counts and weather data. Both datasets were merged to create a comprehensive dataset that was specifically focused on examining the Malaysian state of Sarawak. This consolidated dataset contains a total of 20 at-tributes, forming the basis for the subsequent analyses conducted in this study. The study employed four distinct machine learning methods for regression analysis, comprising Random Forest, XGBoost, Decision Tree, and LASSO regression.