Foot to hand to mouth virus

Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Minus Related Pages. Common in Young Children. Not the Same as Foot-and-Mouth Disease. If you develop mouth sores and think you have HFMD: Take over-the-counter medications to relieve pain and fever. Caution: Children should not take aspirin. Use mouthwashes or sprays that numb mouth pain.

Drink plenty of liquids to stay hydrated. Seek medical care if you are unsure if you have HFMD or you cannot swallow liquids and stay hydrated. Talk to your doctor or nurse if you feel seriously ill, especially if you have a fever. Tell them about your travel. For more information about medical care abroad, see Getting Health Care Abroad and a list of International Joint Commission-accredited facilities.

Frequent hand-washing and avoiding close contact with people who are infected with hand-foot-and-mouth disease may help reduce your child's risk of infection. Hand-foot-and-mouth disease often causes a rash of painful, red, blister-like lesions on the palms of the hands. Hand-foot-and-mouth disease often causes a rash of painful, red, blister-like lesions on the soles of the feet.

Hand-foot-and-mouth disease may cause all of the following signs and symptoms or just some of them. They include:. The usual period from initial infection to the onset of signs and symptoms incubation period is three to six days. A fever is often the first sign of hand-foot-and-mouth disease, followed by a sore throat and sometimes a poor appetite and feeling unwell. One or two days after the fever begins, painful sores may develop in the front of the mouth or throat.

A rash on the hands and feet and possibly on the buttocks can follow within one or two days. Sores that develop in the back of the mouth and throat may suggest that your child is infected with a related viral illness called herpangina.

Other features of herpangina include a sudden high fever and in some instances, seizure. Sores that develop on the hands, feet or other parts of the body are very rare. Hand-foot-and-mouth disease is usually a minor illness causing only a few days of fever and relatively mild signs and symptoms. Contact your doctor if mouth sores or a sore throat keep your child from drinking fluids.

And contact your doctor if after a few days, your child's signs and symptoms worsen. The most common cause of hand-foot-and-mouth disease is infection with the coxsackievirus A The coxsackievirus belongs to a group of viruses called nonpolio enteroviruses. Other types of enteroviruses sometimes cause hand-foot-and-mouth disease.

A person infected with one of these viruses is contagious, which means that they can pass the virus to other people. People with hand, foot, and mouth disease are usually most contagious during the first week that they are sick. People can sometimes spread the virus to others for days or weeks after symptoms go away or if they have no symptoms at all.

Rarely, you can also get the viruses by swallowing recreational water, such as water in swimming pools. This can happen if the water is not properly treated with chlorine and becomes contaminated with feces from a person who has hand, foot, and mouth disease.

Hand, foot, and mouth disease is caused by viruses that belong to the Enterovirus family. Animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats can get foot and mouth disease or hoof-and-mouth disease , which is different than hand, foot, and mouth disease.