Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease
Especially for Parents of Primary Students
Today a grade 2 student was diagnosed with Hand-foot-mouth disease. This student will not return to school for the remainder of this week. The Grade 2 classroom will be thoroughly disinfected after school.
Please check your children for symptoms and practice good hygiene. See below for more information.
If your child has the symptoms listed below, please do not send them to school. Please take them to the doctor.
In General
The disease mostly affects children younger than ages 5 to 7 years old.
Symptoms
Hand-foot-and-mouth disease may cause all of the following symptoms or only some of them. They include: Fever, Sore throat, Feeling sick, Painful, blister-like lesions on the tongue, gums and inside of the cheeks. A rash on the palms, soles and sometimes the buttocks. The rash is not itchy, but sometimes it has blisters.
Depending on skin tone, the rash may appear red, white, gray, or only show as tiny
bumps. Fussiness in infants and toddlers, Loss of appetite.
Most people get the coxsackievirus infection — and hand-foot-and-mouth disease — through the mouth. The illness spreads by person-to-person contact with an infected person's:
-Nose secretions or throat discharge
-Saliva
-Fluid from blisters
-Stool
-Respiratory droplets sprayed into the air after a cough or sneeze
Student who gets the Hand-foot-mouth disease should go to the doctor and stay home for 7 days or until recovery.
Prevention
To lower your child's risk of hand-foot-and-mouth disease in many ways:
- Wash hands often. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds. Be sure to wash your hands after using the toilet or changing a diaper. Also, wash your hands before preparing or eating food and after blowing your nose, sneezing or coughing. When soap and water aren't available, use hand sanitizer.
- Teach good hygiene. Show your children how to wash their hands and help them do it often. Show them how to practice overall good hygiene. Explain to them why it's best not to put their fingers, hands or any other objects in their mouths.
- Disinfect common areas. Clean high-traffic areas and surfaces first with soap and water. Next, clean with a diluted solution of chlorine bleach and water. If you're in a child care setting, follow a strict schedule of cleaning and disinfecting. The virus can live for days on surfaces in common areas, including on door knobs, and on shared items such as toys.
- Avoid close contact. Because hand-foot-and-mouth disease is highly contagious, people with the illness should limit their exposure to others while they have symptoms. Keep children with hand-foot-and-mouth disease out of their child care setting or school until fever is gone and mouth sores have healed.
