Hand, Foot and Mouth disease

 This is a disease that most commonly appear in children and its name is due to the appearance of many lessons inside the mouth and on the hand palm and the foot sole. It is cause by a viral infection with a intestinal virus from the picornaviridae family

It is usually present and spread among young children and infants as this type of viruses can transmit among children through direct contact with  saliva, feces or mucus of the infected child. It can also affect adults but in  rare cases.

Symptoms of HFMD

Symptoms start to appear after an incubation period of three to seven days after which symptoms  appear in the form  of headache , fever and fatigue after which  sore throat and lessons start to appear  in the mucous membrane of the mouth  this phase may last for one or two days then rash starts to appear around the lips and on the hand palm and the foot sole also it may  appear on the cheeks and also on the buttock s but this is usually due to the diarrhea in infants

Treatment of HFMD

As all of the viral infections there are no specific treatment as we depend on the natural immune defense  and the  normal reactions of the body toward the disease but here in each stage of the disease we must give a symptomatic treatment so that we can prevent the complications

In the first two days we give analgesic and anti-pyretic drugs to treat the fever and the headache then in the second stage when sores start to appear in the mouth we can use soothing gel  also we can use soothing topical preparations  to treat the sores and the rashes on the skin

Some few cases may require to be hospitalized as they may suffer from more dangerous symptoms in which the fever may not be treatable with the normal anti-pyretics but this is not usually the case

The whole period of the disease is not more than one week and there is no special home remedy can be done except  for cold bath and administering warm drinks to sooth the sore throat and the lessons in the mouth.

Complications of HFMD

Some complications may occur but in very rare cases this may include viral meningitis which cause headache ,fever and stiff neck. In this case the patient must be hospitalized for a short time

Other complications are usually due to fever not due to direct viral infection when the fever is not treated well these complications include Encephalitis and acute flaccid paralysis.

Prevention of disease transmission among children

As this is the most common way of disease transmission so we can do many things to decrease the rate of its occurrence. First we must take care of the child hi gene and take care of the self care tools used  by the nurses and the teachers in the nurseries and the kindergartens.