He said the private doctors who diagnosed the 20 children — 2 to 8 years old — as having HFMD assured him all are doing quite well.
HFMD should not be confused with foot and mouth disease, or hoof and mouth disease, which occurs in animals.
“To our knowledge, there have been no additional cases so far and upon confirmation (on Friday) there are no concerns for complications from these cases. No one has been to the hospital. No one has required any medical intervention,” he said.
“Public Health will continue to watch for secondary cases. At present, we are certain that this small cluster of cases is closed,” he added.
The doctor said HFMD is a common pediatric disease caused by a virus known as coxsackie which is similar to that of a cold virus only it comes with a rash.
“Hand, foot and mouth disease is a coxsackie virus. It’s an intra virus. It’s like a cold virus but it has a special rash.
The coxsackie virus is found around the world. We have fairly regular cases of hand, foot-and mouth disease,” he said.
Public Health issued an advisory about HFMD recently in hopes of educating the community about the disease.
“We felt like this is a good opportunity for the health department to encourage parents to wash hands when there’s a sick child. But mostly, so that children who are sick should not be sent to school in compliance with the long standing public school policy,” Brostrom said.
A child with HFMD usually has fever, a sore throat and may have a poor appetite.
After a day or two, the child may develop painful sores inside and/or around the mouth and may also develop non-itchy rash on the palms of the hands and the sole of the feet.
The HFMD coxsackie virus can be spread from person to person by contact with infected secretion of the mouth and nose, fluid from sores or blisters, and close contact such as hugging and kissing someone with the disease.
