Main points of the article:
How do you recognize foot and mouth disease? Blisters on the skin and sores in the oral cavity – in the tongue, gums and oral mucosa.
How do you treat foot and mouth disease? There is no medical treatment other than a fever pill, drinking lots of water and calamine ointment (or any other anti-itch and irritation ointment) to dry blisters on the skin. Some claim that goat’s milk can help heal the sores in the mouth.
Is foot and mouth disease dangerous? The disease is not defined as dangerous even when babies or pregnant women get the disease.
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We still haven’t had time to recover from the global corona epidemic, a new and super-contagious infectious disease is already lurking around us: foot-and-mouth disease, or by its scientific name Coxsackie’s disease. Don’t get confused – this is not the foot and mouth disease nor Kawasaki disease, but it is a completely different virus – a virus from the Coxsackie family, which easily enters the body through the digestive system following exposure to another patient.
How do you get infected with the disease, how do you recognize that it is indeed the foot and mouth disease and not another virus, what should you pay attention to and how does goat milk come into the story? Zap Doctors will sort this out for you:
What is foot and mouth disease?
A virus from the Coxsackie family, which easily enters the body through the digestive tract, following exposure to another patient, is the cause of the disease. Quite a few confuse the foot-and-mouth virus with foot-and-mouth disease, but despite the similarity there is no connection between the two diseases: foot-and-mouth disease is a disease that attacks animals through infected secretions and is transmitted to humans in very rare cases.
How do you get foot and mouth disease?
Just as we were infected with the corona viruses – shards of saliva and physical proximity to a sick person. Foot and mouth disease can also be contracted from contact with surfaces that have come into contact with the virus, for example slides in the garden. It is enough for the child to touch the object and then put it in the mouth for it to become infected. This is why the virus spreads quickly and all at once. It is also possible to contract the virus following the use of shared toilets, or during the care of a baby who suffers from the disease (for example, when changing his diaper). In order not to get infected, it is very important to maintain hygiene, to wash your hands frequently, to change diapers with gloves, to clean the changing surfaces and more.
What are the main symptoms of foot and mouth disease?
Children under the age of four or five come home from preschool with different symptoms almost every week, so most parents aren’t stressed by a little runny nose, sneeze, or even a mild rash. Foot and mouth disease also initially looks like a slight cold: the child looks “squished”, maybe his throat hurts a little, but unlike just a cold, the symptoms of foot and mouth disease are a bit more significant – the disease involves pain and sores and sometimes the fever climbs up like the flu.
Sores in the mouth make it difficult to eat. Photo: Shutterstock
Among the symptoms: fever and weakness, the child looks exhausted and has difficulty eating. After a few days of illness (usually up to a week), blisters begin to appear on his palms and feet. At the same time, painful sores also appear in the oral cavity, on the tongue, in the gums and near the palate, which makes it difficult for him to eat and drink.
How do you treat foot and mouth disease?
There is no special treatment for foot and mouth disease. Since it is a virus and not a bacterium, there is no point in giving antibiotics. In fact, there is really no specific medicine that can eliminate the disease, but you can use antipyretic drugs, applying a drying ointment to the wounds such as Penistil or calamine, drinking plenty of fluids and resting.
Some believe that a well-known grandmother’s remedy – drinking goat’s milk – may ease the painful sores in the mouth. There is no scientific proof of this, but if it works, try it and only on the condition that it is pasteurized goat’s milk, otherwise you will expose the patient to more serious diseases.
Drinking unpasteurized goat milk can cause infection with the Brucella bacteria. Photo: Shutterstock
Dr. Gil Yosef-Shahar from the Rambam Medical Center explains on his website that goat’s milk has anti-viral properties, which can help fight the virus. On the other hand, he explains, drinking unpasteurized goat milk can lead to infection with the brucella bacteria, which attacks many goats, and we obviously have no way of knowing in advance whether the goat is infected or not. Infection with this bacterium produces a serious disease called brucellosis, which leads to serious problems such as inflammation of the bone, myocarditis, inflammation of the hip joints and more. Pasteurization of the goat’s milk kills the Brucella bacteria, but reduces the antiviral abilities of the milk.
How do you recognize that it is foot and mouth disease and not another virus?
Many viral diseases start just like that – weakness, rash and fever, but foot and mouth disease is also characterized by painful sores in the oral cavity and blisters on the palms of the hands and feet, hence its name. Sometimes the red blisters on the hands spread to the rest of the body and become really noticeable to the touch, but they are neither painful nor itchy. The doctor identifies the disease based on the external symptoms, but it can also be diagnosed with a stool sample.
How long does foot and mouth disease last?
Foot and mouth disease is a disease that lasts up to ten days, with the incubation time being between three and six days. In the first week the disease is at its peak and then it is most contagious, when the virus can nest in the body for several more months. Many adults, who are usually asymptomatic, are often unaware that they carry the virus, so there is a danger that they will infect others who may become infected and develop a serious illness, especially children under the age of five.
Is foot and mouth disease dangerous in pregnancy?
The disease is not defined as dangerous nor is it dangerous for pregnant women and does not harm the fetus. Of course, you should monitor the development of the disease and not ignore any unusual symptoms, such as prolonged high fever, vomiting, severe headaches or signs of dehydration.
Is the disease more dangerous for babies or adults?
Regarding babies, the main problem is the pain in the oral cavity and their difficulty drinking and eating because of this, so you have to be very careful not to get dehydrated. If this happens, go to the hospital for a fluid infusion. Other unusual symptoms that should turn on a red light are unusual headaches, difficulty moving the neck forward or backward and vomiting – all of these can indicate the development of meningitis.
Questions and Answers
Does foot and mouth disease infect adults? Most adults will not contract foot and mouth disease, for the reason that almost everyone was infected with the Coxsackie virus as a child. If they do become infected, adults will often develop very mild disease symptoms. However, adults carry the virus and may infect children, who under the age of five may develop a severe illness.
When can you go back to kindergarten after foot and mouth disease? Most doctors state that 24 hours after the fever has passed, the child can be sent back to kindergarten. If he is tired and suffering from the wounds in the oral cavity, you should of course leave him at home until he feels better and throughout the illness it is important to monitor and check that he is eating and drinking.
Can foot and mouth disease come back? The disease can recur, but in the recurrence the disease is usually less severe or without symptoms at all. A person who has passed the disease can be infected with the virus again without knowing it.
Are we in the midst of an epidemic? It is too early to say whether it is indeed an epidemic, but according to the number of posts on the network of parents who want to obtain goat’s milk to treat their child who has foot and mouth disease, there is an increase in the number of patients – many children have been infected with this virus in the last two months and they are, of course, infecting other children.
In what periods does the mouth and limbs erupt? Mostly in the summer and early spring, but there are also outbreaks in the winter season.