{"id":383383,"date":"2025-11-16T17:13:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T17:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/383383\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T17:13:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T17:13:13","slug":"hand-foot-and-mouth-disease-is-on-the-rise-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/383383\/","title":{"rendered":"Hand, Foot And Mouth Disease Is On The Rise: What To Know"},"content":{"rendered":"

This fall, multiple states including Maryland<\/a>, Virginia, Tennessee<\/a> and Wisconsin have reported outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth disease, a contagious virus that commonly infects children under 5 but can also cause symptoms in older kids and adults, too.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis year, [cases seem] to be out of control,\u201d said Dr. Allison Agwu<\/a>, a professor of adult and pediatric infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. For example, in Agwu\u2019s state of Maryland, cases are at \u201cfour to five times what they saw this time last year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dr. Matthew Thomas<\/a>, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at WVU Medicine Golisano Children\u2019s in West Virginia, said spikes typically happen in cycles. \u201cSome years you\u2019ll see a lot of cases, like we\u2019re seeing this year, and then it kind of fades away, where you don\u2019t hear about it for a while,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

With cases higher than normal, it\u2019s important to know the signs of the virus and what to do if you (or your kids) get sick. Here\u2019s what to know:<\/p>\n

As the name suggests, symptoms include blisters on the hands, feet and mouth.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hand, foot and mouth is a virus within the family of enteroviruses, explained Dr. Jennifer Duchon<\/a>, an associate professor in the divisions of pediatric infectious disease and newborn medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.<\/p>\n

Enteroviruses can present with a range of symptoms. In the case of hand, foot and mouth, \u201cpeople can have symptoms like a common cold,\u201d according to Thomas. This includes a fever, Agwu added, in addition to respiratory symptoms such as a runny nose.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut then a common feature is that they will have a rash, typically on the hands and feet, as well as ulcers or blisters within the mouth,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

The blisters in the mouth are generally at the back of the throat and are often really painful, according to Duchon. <\/p>\n

On the hands and feet, the rash may appear as little red bumps. \u201cThose show up a couple days after the fever,\u201d Agwu noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes people\u2019s hands will start to peel when the rash starts to go away, their feet will start to peel after the rash goes away,\u201d Duchon said. \u201cIn really dramatic cases, sometimes your fingernails can fall off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Hand,<\/p>\n

Jill Lehmann Photography via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Hand, foot and mouth disease can cause blister-like bumps.<\/p>\n

The disease spreads through respiratory droplets and fecal matter and can live on surfaces.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hand, foot and mouth disease is \u201csuper contagious,\u201d Agwu said.<\/p>\n

It spreads through respiratory droplets that go out in the air when someone coughs or sneezes, according to Thomas. It can also spread via the fluid from the blisters or via infected surfaces. So if a child who has the virus drools on toys at daycare, other kids could get sick from those toys.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also spread in stool, so particularly for our infants who are not yet potty trained, someone who\u2019s changing diapers is often putting themselves at risk,\u201d Thomas said. For parents or caretakers changing dirty diapers, good hand hygiene is particularly important. <\/p>\n

Most children and adults recover easily at home.<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the virus certainly can be gruesome, and often painful, most people do recover at home with the help of symptomatic care such as fever-reducing medications.<\/p>\n

There are no specific medications for hand, foot and mouth, and since it\u2019s a viral illness, \u201cno antibiotics are going to get rid of it,\u201d Agwu said.<\/p>\n

If you or your children do get sick, you should \u201ctry to avoid spreading it to anyone else,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n

Anyone who is sick with hand, foot and mouth should isolate from others so they don\u2019t pass on the virus, while also hydrating and eating enough nutrients. The virus tends to last for about a week in most people, Thomas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re having more severe symptoms, like if you\u2019re having a lot of ulcers in your mouth, it may take up to 10 to 14 days to resolve fully,\u201d Thomas added.<\/p>\n

Some people require additional care, though. If you aren\u2019t able to hydrate, or keep your sick child hydrated, you should seek medical care, Thomas noted. The same is true if whoever is sick isn\u2019t able to eat enough.<\/p>\n

Duchon added, \u201cIf you\u2019ve had hand, foot and mouth and afterwards, or towards the end of the illness, you\u2019re feeling really, really tired or having trouble breathing, those are things that are really serious to look for that can mean that the heart has been affected. That\u2019s a very rare but serious complication.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hand-washing is a good way to protect yourself from catching this virus.<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are a number of things you can do to keep yourself from getting sick with hand, foot and mouth and other viruses that are currently circulating such as the common cold and COVID-19<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way to prevent it is going to be always the same thing \u2014 washing hands … if you\u2019re touching something that\u2019s problematic, like stool or what have you, making sure you\u2019re doubling down on using good hand hygiene,\u201d Agwu said.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re out and about, a \u201cgood alcohol-based hand sanitizer\u201d is a fine option, too, but hand-washing with soap and water is ideal, Thomas said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also helpful to avoid touching your face as much as you can, Agwu noted.<\/p>\n

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As a general rule of thumb for virus prevention of any kind, staying away from sick people and wearing a mask to protect yourself from virus shed are also good ways to stay healthy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This fall, multiple states including Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee and Wisconsin have reported outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":383384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[14206,210,67,132,68,13203],"class_list":{"0":"post-383383","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-doctors","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-virus"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115560500845985394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}