Two dangerous complications of hand, foot and mouth disease

Having a child being treated for hand, foot and mouth disease at the National Children’s Hospital, Ms. Ngo Thu Quynh (Nam Tu Liem, Hanoi) said that her child (10.5 months old) had a fever of over 38 degrees, anorexia, and sore throat. , drooling…

Before that, the baby played with another young child (7 months old). This baby had a fever, his family took him to the doctor and was diagnosed with hand, foot and mouth disease. So when her child showed similar symptoms of fever, Quynh also thought about the possibility of her child spreading the disease and took her to the National Children’s Hospital for examination. Here, the baby was also concluded to have hand, foot and mouth disease. Like many other children with this infectious disease, the patient more than 10 months old had a rash on the feet, knees …

The same child being treated at the National Children’s Hospital due to hand, foot and mouth disease is Ms. Hoang Thi Thanh Thuy (Hoang Mai, Hanoi).

When her daughter (3 years old) had a fever and had a poor appetite, Ms. Thuy thought that she had a sore throat. Only when the baby’s knees appeared red, did she think of the possibility that her child had hand, foot and mouth disease and took her to the doctor. “I texted my son’s teacher to let me know that in his class, there were also 2 other students with hand, foot and mouth disease. Most mothers think their child has a cold sore.”this mother shared.

Dr.BS Dao Huu Nam, Head of the Intensive Care Unit, Center for Tropical Diseases, National Hospital of Pediatrics, said that from March until now, hand, foot and mouth disease started to appear sporadically. Currently, the Center for Tropical Diseases has received and treated 9 patients.

In previous years, when children went to school normally, the rate of hand, foot and mouth disease was very high, especially in preschool children because children came into contact with and spread diseases from each other. Now, COVID-19 decreased, children returned to school, infectious diseases continued to increase, including hand, foot and mouth disease.

Dr.BS Nam recommends that parents should monitor their child’s symptoms, that is, whether the child has a fever, startle, rash on hands, feet, mouth or not. Besides, parents also need to check the history of children in the classroom with this disease or not.

Doctors recommend that regular cleaning for children is important to reduce the possibility of infection.

The route of transmission of this disease is through saliva, eating, drinking, etc. In addition to being transmitted through hand contact, the disease is also spread by contact with scalds when in contact with patients. The disease can affect anyone, but children under 5 years old are the most common, especially children under 3 years old. Mainly, we only prevent by non-specific measures such as hand hygiene, washing hands with soap, following 6 steps of the Ministry of Health… to reduce the risk of hand, foot and mouth disease.

When a child is sick, parents give the child a normal, nutritious diet, pay attention to body hygiene, and eat cooked and boiled food. When cleaning a child, it is important to wash your hands thoroughly to avoid infecting other children. Parents do not abstain from bathing, washing their children and do not need to abstain from any food.

When a child is sick, parents need to pay attention to the signs of a child having a high fever continuously, lethargy, startling, shaking hands and feet… At this time, it is necessary to send the child to a specialist hospital immediately to be treated promptly to avoid the risk of danger. dangerous complications. “Severe complications of hand, foot and mouth disease are encephalitis and myocarditis. These are two common complications that can cause children to die or leave sequelae if they are not detected early and treated in time,” said Dr. Nam.

In the absence of complications, most children can fully recover 3 to 5 days after the full stage.

Normally, there are no severe symptoms, only a rash of hands, feet and fever. When a child has a rash on hands, feet, mouth, high fever, the child should be taken to the hospital for examination. The doctor will assess the extent of the disease, grade 1 can be treated at home, but grade 2 must be treated at the hospital for monitoring.

Also according to TS.BS Dao Huu Nam, distinguishing hand, foot and mouth disease from other diseases such as COVID-19 and dengue fever is quite clear. Children with hand, foot and mouth disease will have a rash on the palms of their hands, feet, and mouth. Meanwhile, children with dengue fever have common symptoms such as human rash, continuous fever.