Hand Foot and Mouth Disease
There has been a confirmed case of hand foot and mouth disease at school.
Symptoms include a slight fever, tiredness, loss of appetite, blisters in the mouth and on the hands and feet and a sore mouth for a few days before the blisters appear. Affected young children may refuse to eat or drink.
Incubation period: 3-5 days
Infectious period: As long as there is fluid in the blisters. Faeces can remain infected for several weeks.
Control of spread: Exclude children form child care, school, pre-school until all blisters have dried.
Questions:
1) What year level did the confirmed case come from? As a concerned parent, it would help me greatly to know if my children are more or less likely to come into contact with infected person/s.
2) Do you have any links to health information you could include?
3) Considering it’s a virus, spread through mucous (coughing, sneezing), saliva, feaces… Should swimming be cancelled? Considering how many viruses ‘go around’ during swimming time – as the kids get all sorts of ‘bugs’ from others in the pools…
Thanks for your questions.
The child with hand, foot and mouth is in the year 4/5 cohort
We use the book “You’ve got what?” http://www.dh.sa.gov.au/pehs/ygw/ygwprint-pehs-sahealth-2009.pdf produced by the government for health information.
Swimming does not need to be cancelled as the child was not at school during the infectious period.
Whose class is most likely to be affected? If year 4/5 cohort should those parents get a little more information so that they can be aware to look out more closely for symptoms?
There is no more information to give out other than the info we have already given and the link to the health handbook.