Symptoms of hand-foot-and-mouth disease and how to care for children with hand-foot-and-mouth disease

Symptoms of hand-foot-and-mouth disease and how to care for children with hand-foot-and-mouth disease. Hand, foot and mouth disease and  enterovirus 71 are diseases that are prevalent in children every year. Especially during the beginning of the rainy season. When the rate of this disease is high. Therefore, let’s learn more about this disease. 

Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common disease in children. Most patients are children under 5 years old. It usually spreads during the rainy season. This disease is caused by a group of enteroviruses, of which there are many that can cause it. The most severe one is enterovirus 71 or EV71 for short. The virus that is severely prevalent in our neighboring countries is EV71. In Thailand, we have also found EV71 along with other enteroviruses. But most of them are not very severe strains.

Symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease

• Children with HFMD often start with a fever.
• Mouth hurts
• I can’t eat much and my saliva is dripping because I have mouth ulcers that look like canker sores.
• and there is a rash with red spots or blisters on the palms of the hands, soles of the feet, and may occur on the torso, arms, and legs.
• Patients usually have severe symptoms for 2-3 days, then gradually improve and disappear within 1 week. Most have mild symptoms, but some have severe symptoms that prevent them from eating or drinking.

This disease is usually not scary and will go away on its own without any problems. However, there is a small chance that it will become severe or have complications, especially if it is caused by EV71. Which will increase the chance of severe disease.

The most serious complication is brainstem inflammation, causing respiratory and circulatory failure, which can be fatal very quickly. Sometimes, EV71 can cause severe encephalitis without the rash that is hand-foot-mouth.  Children who develop severe complications or encephalitis will have dangerous signs such as lethargy, weakness, convulsions, hand tremors, staggering, shortness of breath, and vomiting.  

If these symptoms are found, they must see a doctor immediately. The current outbreak of hand-foot-mouth disease in Thailand. Although most of the symptoms are mild, we must be aware of severe symptoms, even though the chances are low.

Preliminary observations of symptoms in children with hand, foot and mouth disease

• Acute fever
• Have a headache, stomachache, and body aches
• The child has a sore throat and a loss of appetite. The child will not eat anything because of the pain from the wound in his mouth.
• The child will have excessive and sticky saliva all the time.

After 2 days, observe the child’s symptoms of HFMD closely because during this period the roof of the child’s mouth will become sore, they will not be able to eat or drink, and they will cry and be cranky all the time. After about 2 days, blisters will appear on the child’s hands, feet, body, and bottom.

During the period when the child is unable to eat anything, parents must feed the child water as often as possible because they are worried that the child may become dehydrated from not drinking water.

Note: If your child has these symptoms, it may be hand, foot, and mouth disease.

In diagnosing the cause of hand, foot and mouth disease in children, the diagnosis is usually made based on the symptoms of the disease and the examination of the patient as follows:

• The patient has a high fever of 38 – 39 degrees Celsius.
• Found red raised spots, blisters, or sores on the oral mucosa, tongue, and gums.
• Found flat red spots, bumps, or blisters on the hands, feet, palms, soles, and buttocks.
• In patients with severe complications, the doctor may perform additional viral tests from pharyngeal secretions, feces, or lymph from skin blisters to confirm the infection in this group, depending on the doctor’s discretion. This is because this โปรโมชั่นพิเศษจาก UFABET สมัครตอนนี้ รับโบนัสทันที type of testing is not necessary for every patient. It is expensive, and in some situations, it cannot be done due to various technical obstacles, such as testing for viral genes by Polymerase chain reaction (PCR), which takes about 1-3 days to test and report the results, and testing by virus culture, which takes about a week to test and report the results. Currently, there is no testing method that can provide results within 1-2 hours.

In addition , the characteristics of hand-foot-mouth disease are similar to other diseases, which may lead to the possibility of other diseases that are not hand-foot-mouth disease, such as rheumatic fever, caused by a bacterial infection that causes fever and a red rash, herpes simplex, caused by a viral infection that causes a rash on the skin and blisters in the mouth, herpes, chickenpox, canker sores or blisters, etc.

Treatment guidelines

There is no specific treatment for this disease. The treatment principle is symptomatic. Children with severe complications need to receive intensive care.

Transmission of hand-foot-and-mouth disease

This disease is transmitted by direct contact with the nasal mucus, saliva or feces of an infected person, or indirectly, such as through contact with toys, caregivers’ hands, contaminated water and food. Therefore, this disease is often prevalent in kindergartens or daycare centers.

How to prevent hand, foot and mouth disease

• There is no vaccine to prevent hand, foot and mouth disease. 
  
• The most important prevention is to isolate sick people from contact with other children. All children, including adults who care for children, should wash their hands frequently to prevent the spread of infection. Clean toys and the environment daily. Clean with soap, detergent or general detergent and dry.
  
  Be careful about the cleanliness of water, food and all objects that children may put in their mouths. Do not let children share toys that may be contaminated with saliva or eating utensils. Children should be taught to use serving spoons and wash their hands before eating.

To prevent the spread of infection, schools should not admit sick children until they are well, which usually takes about a week. Parents should take their sick children to see a doctor and not take them to school. If they are found to have this disease, they should be treated according to the doctor’s advice. And after recovering, children with this disease can still carry the virus in their stool for several weeks. Therefore, even after a child has recovered, they still need to be careful about fecal contamination for a long time. Emphasis should be placed on washing hands after using the toilet or changing diapers and before eating for all children and adults. Hands should be washed with soap and water because alcohol gel cannot kill enteroviruses.

During an outbreak, children should not be taken to places where other children are congregating, as there is a chance that they will be infected, as there are children who have the disease and can spread the infection without symptoms or with only mild symptoms, who may be congregating.

Preventing outbreaks in childcare centers or kindergartens

1. Children with a fever, a rash, or mouth sores should be screened and not allowed to attend school. This is because some children have only mild symptoms, or some have a fever but no rash. A thermometer (mercury) should be provided for use in cases where a child is suspected of having a fever, and a teacher or nurse should check the child before entering school every day.
   
2. Measures should be taken to clean toys and the environment daily or when they become contaminated with saliva, mucus or dirt.
   
3. Strict hand-washing measures are in place for all levels of staff who care for young children, especially whenever they may come into contact with mucus, saliva, or feces. Using alcohol gel to wash hands cannot kill germs.
   
4. If there are multiple outbreaks, consider closing that class for a week, or if there are outbreaks in multiple classes, the school should be closed as well to stop the spread.

Caring for children with hand, foot and mouth disease

It must be said that when it comes to hand-foot-and-mouth disease , keeping the child’s body clean is one thing that will prevent the wound from spreading easily. Parents also need to be very strong-willed to take care of them. If the child has a fever, wipe the child’s body or take medicine to reduce the fever to relieve the symptoms. One of the most worrying things when a child has this disease is that he will not eat anything because the wound in his mouth hurts.

Therefore, before eating, mothers should use the anesthetic that the doctor gave them when they went to check on them and apply it to the wound in their mouth before eating. Or emphasize that the child eats liquid food that must be cold, such as chilled milk, not hot soy milk, sweet water, ice cream, jelly, fruit, fresh milk tofu pudding, minerals, and emphasize drinking lots of water to reduce dehydration. If the child cannot eat anything, they must be taken to see a doctor immediately for saline solution.

In cases where children are likely to have HFMD. Parents should let their children stay home from school to monitor symptoms of the disease and to prevent the spread if the disease is found. HFMD is usually not very serious and will go away on its own within 1 week. However, if children are lethargic or vomit a lot. They should see a doctor immediately to check and monitor their symptoms. As there may also be symptoms of encephalitis.