PREVENTION

Children are most likely to spread the disease during the first week of the illness. But the virus can stay in the stool for several months and may spread to others. To help prevent the disease from spreading:

• If your child goes to day care or school, talk to the staff about when your child can return.
• Wash your hands frequently. It is especially important to wash your hands after you touch a blister or change the diaper of an infected child.
• Teach all family members to wash their hands often. It is especially important to wash your hands after you change the diaper of an infected child.
• Don't let your child share toys or give kisses while he or she is infected.

TREATMENT

There is no specific treatment for hand , foot and mouth disease. You can use home care to help relieve the symptoms.

• Offer your child plenty of cool fluids to help with sore throat. Cold foods such as flavored ice pops and ice cream also may help.
• Don't give your child acidic or spicy foods and drinks, such as salsa or orange juice. These foods can make mouth sores more painful.
• For pain and fever, give your child acetaminophen (such as Tylenol) or ibuprofen (such as Advil). Do not give your child aspirin. It has been linked to Reye syndrome, a serious illness.

DIAGNOSIS

Your doctor will likely be able to distinguish hand-foot-and-mouth disease from other types of viral infections by evaluating:

•   The age of the affected person

•   The pattern of signs and symptoms

•   The appearance of the rash or sores

Your doctor may take a throat swab or stool specimen and send it to the laboratory to determine which virus caused the illness.

CAUSES

The most common cause of hand-foot-and-mouth disease is infection with the coxsackievirus A16. The coxsackievirus belongs to a group of viruses called nonpolio enteroviruses. Other types of enteroviruses sometimes cause hand-foot-and-mouth disease.

Oral ingestion is the main source of coxsackievirus infection and hand-foot-and-mouth disease. The illness spreads by person-to-person contact with an infected person's:

• Nasal secretions or throat discharge
• Saliva
• Fluid from blisters
• Stool
• Respiratory droplets sprayed into the air after a cough or sneeze

Common in child care setting

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is most common in children in child care settings because of frequent diaper changes and potty training, and because little children often put their hands in their mouths.

Although your child is most contagious with hand-foot-and-mouth disease during the first week of the illness, the virus can remain in his or her body for weeks after the signs and symptoms are gone. That means your child still can infect others.

Some people, particularly adults, can pass the virus without showing any signs or symptoms of the disease.

Outbreaks of the disease are more common in summer and autumn in the United States and other temperate climates. In tropical climates, outbreaks occur year-round.

Different from foot-and-mouth disease

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease isn't related to foot-and-mouth disease (sometimes called hoof-and-mouth disease), which is an infectious viral disease found in farm animals. You can't contract hand-foot-and-mouth disease from pets or other animals, and you can't transmit it to them

SIGN N SYMPTOM

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease may cause all of the following signs and symptoms or just some of them. They include:

• Fever
• Sore throat
• Feeling of being unwell (malaise)
• Painful, red, blister-like lesions on the tongue, gums and inside of the cheeks
• A red rash, without itching but sometimes with blistering, on the palms, soles and sometimes the buttocks
• Irritability in infants and toddlers
• Loss of appetite

The usual period from initial infection to the onset of signs and symptoms (incubation period) is three to six days. A fever is often the first sign of hand-foot-and-mouth disease, followed by a sore throat and sometimes a poor appetite and malaise.

One or two days after the fever begins, painful sores may develop in the mouth or throat. A rash on the hands and feet and possibly on the buttocks can follow within one or two days.

INTRODUCTION

        Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is caused by a virus (usually from the coxsackie group of enteroviruses, particularly coxsackie virus A16). It causes blisters on the hands and feet, in the mouth and often in the ‘nappy’ area. It is generally only a mild disease that lasts seven to ten days.

        Hand foot and mouth disease (HFM) is a viral infection characterized by fever and a typical rash most frequently seen on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and inside the mouth. It should not be confused with foot (hoof) and mouth disease that affects cattle, sheep, and swine.

        HFMD is more common during warmer weather and tends to spread easily between children.There is no connection between this disease and the foot and mouth disease that affects cattle and some other animals.

        HFMD occurs mainly in children under ten years of age, but can also affect older children and adults. Outbreaks may occur in childcare settings. By the time they are adults, most people have been infected with the virus that causes this disease.

        This infection is spread by direct contact with fluid from the skin blisters, nose and throat discharges (including saliva, sputum or nasal mucus), droplets (sneezing, coughing) and faeces (stools). Good personal hygiene is important to prevent spread of the infection to others.

       The skin blisters of HFMD are infectious until they become crusty and there is no fluid in the blisters. The virus may also be shed in the faeces (poo) for several weeks after the blisters resolve.