The Min­istry of Health yes­ter­day con­firmed that sev­er­al cas­es of hand, foot and mouth dis­ease (HFMD) have been re­port­ed among chil­dren in the East-West cor­ri­dor and cen­tral Trinidad and To­ba­go. This con­fir­ma­tion comes one day af­ter head of the Ac­ci­dent and Emer­gency De­part­ment at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex (EWM­SC) Dr Helmer Hilwig de­nied re­ports of an out­break of the dis­ease.

Ac­cord­ing to Dr Hilwig, pa­tients, main­ly chil­dren were show­ing up at the hos­pi­tal with cox­sack­ie virus which has sim­i­lar symp­toms to HFMD. How­ev­er, in an ad­vi­so­ry yes­ter­day, the Health Min­istry said the dis­ease is usu­al­ly a mild, short ill­ness caused by a virus. It main­ly af­fects chil­dren un­der ten years. Old­er chil­dren and adults may de­vel­op a milder form of the ill­ness. Most chil­dren ful­ly re­cov­er with­in a week and se­ri­ous com­pli­ca­tions are rare. This dis­ease is not re­lat­ed to the dis­ease with a sim­i­lar name which af­fects an­i­mals.

HFMD usu­al­ly be­gins with a fever and sore throats are com­mon. The symp­toms are list­ed be­low:

• A non-itchy skin rash may de­vel­op. The rash usu­al­ly ap­pears on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet; it may al­so ap­pear on the but­tocks and gen­i­tal area.

• Small spots de­vel­op in­side the mouth which turn in­to small mouth ul­cers (sores). The sores are usu­al­ly lo­cat­ed on the tongue, gums, and in­side of the cheeks.

All symp­toms may not be present and some chil­dren with the dis­ease show no signs of the symp­toms. Par­ents should con­sult a pri­vate doc­tor or go to the near­est health cen­tre for ad­vice. There is no spe­cif­ic treat­ment for the dis­ease but fever and pain can be treat­ed with over-the-counter med­ica­tions. Do not give as­pirin to chil­dren. Mouth­wash­es or sprays that numb pain can be used to lessen mouth pain.

Do not wrap up a fever­ish child. Keep the room or house cool by open­ing the win­dow, or us­ing a fan on the oth­er side of the room to keep the air cir­cu­lat­ing. Keep chil­dren well hy­drat­ed by giv­ing them lots of liq­uids. Cool slushy foods such as yo­gurt may be best to help sore mouths. Keep breast-feed­ing, as breast milk is the best flu­id.

• Con­sult a doc­tor im­me­di­ate­ly if symp­toms wors­en.

• Con­sult a doc­tor if a child stops drink­ing due to a sore mouth as de­hy­dra­tion may de­vel­op in rare cas­es.

• Con­sult a doc­tor prompt­ly if you are con­cerned about any un­usu­al symp­toms that de­vel­op.

The virus can be spread from one per­son to an­oth­er by:

• Cough­ing and sneez­ing which trans­mits the virus in­to the air.

• Di­rect con­tact with in­fec­tious virus via nose and throat se­cre­tions, sali­va, blis­ter flu­id and stool of in­fect­ed per­sons.

• Un­washed, virus-con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed hands and by con­tact with virus-con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed sur­faces.

In­fect­ed per­sons are most con­ta­gious dur­ing the first week of the ill­ness, how­ev­er, the virus can re­main in the body for sev­er­al weeks.

Good per­son­al hy­giene prac­tice is the most im­por­tant way to pre­vent the spread of the virus. No vac­cine is avail­able to pro­tect against the virus­es that cause the dis­ease.

• Wash hands of­ten and cor­rect­ly, es­pe­cial­ly af­ter chang­ing di­a­pers and af­ter us­ing the toi­let.

• Cov­er nose and mouth when sneez­ing or cough­ing with a tis­sue or sneeze in­to your el­bow. Throw tis­sue in­to a bin and wash hands.

• Clean shared sur­faces and ob­jects of­ten, in­clud­ing toys, door knobs, ta­ble tops and oth­er fre­quent­ly used sur­faces. Dis­in­fect them by cleans­ing with a bleach so­lu­tion made by adding one ta­ble­spoon of bleach to four cups of wa­ter, or use an ap­proved over-the-counter clean­ing liq­uid.

• Avoid­ing close con­tact (kiss­ing, hug­ging, shar­ing eat­ing uten­sils or cups, etc) with per­sons with the dis­ease.

• Chil­dren who are ill should be kept out of school un­til their fever and rash have sub­sided and all the sores have dried up.

• Avoid go­ing to over­crowd­ed places un­til symp­toms clear.