Foot And Mouth (And Hand) Disease In School

[silentnine]

hi all.. picked the little one up from kindergarton today .. school closign now till next week as one of the other kids who was in there village up country came back with a case of foot and mouth.. is this the same disease that they slaughter herds of cows and pigs for ? not heard anythign about any outbreaks in thailand

[rmicheald]

Had an outbreak at the school I was teaching at about 5 years ago. They closed the school and disinfected everything, then reopened. Many schools don't provide soap for the kids to wash their hands and consequently, diseases spread...

[sinbin]

Kids are going down with it where I live in Buriram Province. My son has it twice within the last few months. It causes white sore spots in the mouth making it difficult to eat food. Some kids have been admitted to hospital and put on drips. My son was given antibiotics and paracetamol. He doesn't like taking medicine, so we had the antibiotics injected. It took 3 days to clear, and for him to eat without discomfort.

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Hand,-Foot-and-Mouth-Disease.htm

Edited June 20, 2011 by sinbin

[Sheryl]

Although the names are similar it is an entirely different disease than what happens in cattle etc. Different organism responsible.

It is caused by a virus. Adults rarely get it unless they are immunocompromised, but young children can catch it fairly easily, and epidemics in schools and camps are not unusual.

It is spread through contact with salivia, mucous etc. It is a self-limiting disease and the only treatment is symptomatic (paracetemol for fever etc). Runs its course in about 1-2 weeks.

A very small minority of children go on to develop complications such as meningitis or ene3cephalitis, but the vast majority recover without incident. Unpleasant illness, though.

[bina]

every year same seasons same illnesses and same posts...

antibiotics not needed usually.

if the child is refusing to eat or drink, jello (or the thai equivalents of which there are many tastry and nutritious variations), ice pops, and other soft moist bland foods. if it is a baby and nursing or bottle drinking is a problem, here in israel they are automatically checked for dehydration and often given IV fluids since in the spring and fall we sometimes have very very hot weather. seems thailand gets seasonal bouts also, u can search the forum .

spreads through sheets, towels, toys taht havent been disinfected well, and anything else that was touched by saliva.

hoof and mouth disease of livestock is Aphtae epizooticae and has many variations; death is not from the disease but from the symptoms: it is just too costly to treat symptoms in large herds of hooved animals, when they cannot eat for a while> animals that are ruminants that stop eating for mor ethen a day or so develop many complications. also, young hoofed animals die from dehydration as they are unable to nurse or eat. the damage caused by the hoof /mouth disease of livestock is largely economic which is the reason behind destroying and quarantining herds. not because it is a zoonoses (spread by animal to human).

bina

[Blueeyes1999uk]

My child goes to the same Kindy and was sent home yesterday with suspected symptoms - absolute rubbish I took her to the hospital (I knew she was fine I am her mother after all) and the Doctor looked at me like I'd come from the moon but happily took the money for a full examination! As per previous posts a nasty virus but not life threatening (in older kids) but can cause complications in the elderly or young babies (I have both living in the house). They are doing the correct thing by closing and disinfecting the school and will no doubt get the MOH in before they reopen. Perhaps we should get together and ask for a rebate on fees / school bus etc!! I have had kids in school here for 5 years and see it at least once a year. I can only liken it to the stigma of the "nit nurse" if you come from the U.K. - inconvenient for the school to close and maybe they need to look at their hygiene processes which I made clear to the headmistress in my conversation with her yesterday.