Children with hand, foot and mouth disease skyrocketed, what dangerous complications will they face if not treated promptly?

Increasing number of children with hand, foot and mouth disease

Statistics on the infectious disease surveillance system of the Ministry of Health show that from the beginning of 2022 to now, the whole country has recorded 5,545 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, including 1 death in Binh Thuan province.

Compared to the same period in 2021, the number of cases decreased by 83.3%, the number of deaths decreased by 9 cases. However, the number of cases tends to increase mainly in the South and locally in some provinces and cities, such as: Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Soc Trang.

At the National Children’s Hospital, only in April and May, the hospital received nearly 780 cases of hand, foot and mouth disease, while the previous two months only recorded about 20 cases.

Children with hand, foot and mouth disease skyrocketed, what dangerous complications will they face if not treated promptly?

BS. Specialty 2. Nguyen Thi Hong Nhan, Head of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Saint Paul General Hospital (Hanoi) said: Hand, foot and mouth disease is known to be caused by intestinal viruses and is easily transmitted through the digestive tract. or contact with blisters, feces, saliva or nasopharyngeal secretions.

Hand, foot and mouth disease in children has manifestations such as fever, sore throat, mouth ulcers, gums, tongue, blisters on palms, feet, knees, buttocks; If not observed carefully, it can be confused with rashes or chickenpox.

Manifestations of the disease are vesicular lesions on the skin on the palms of the hands and feet and ulcers in the mouth; lymph nodes of the knee and buttocks. In addition, hand, foot and mouth disease has accompanying lesions such as: inflammation of the respiratory tract, digestive tract, vomiting, defecation, cough, runny nose. Children have poor appetite, poor feeding due to mouth ulcers.

Regarding the stages of the disease, according to Dr. Hong Nhan, this is an infectious disease divided into 4 stages including:

Incubation from 1-2 days can appear onset; the onset stage – children have mild signs such as: colds, flu; full-blown stage – children have enough signs of vesicular lesions, digestive, respiratory, neurological damage and remission phase.

“Notably, in the full-blown stage, dangerous complications can be encountered such as cardiovascular disease, complications to the brain if not treated promptly and the child may die,” said Dr. Hong Nhan.

According to BS. Hong Nhan, hand, foot and mouth disease when complications occur quickly, can cause myocarditis, myocardial damage, encephalitis, meningoencephalitis, children have nystagmus, cerebellar ligation can be quick death.

This is a viral disease that has no specific treatment, mainly children rest and treat symptoms; strengthen resistance, feed children many small meals, supplement nutrition, vitamins, increase resistance for children to recover quickly.

Three early warning signs of severe disease

TS-BS. Do Thien Hai, Deputy Director of the Center for Tropical Diseases – National Children’s Hospital, recommends that, if a child has one of the three symptoms mentioned above, parents need to immediately take the child to a medical facility for timely examination and treatment. should not subjectively self-monitor at home, to avoid possible unfortunate consequences.

Specifically:

High fever unresponsive to treatment: The child has a fever above 38.5 degrees for more than 48 hours and does not respond to antipyretic drugs.

Startle: This is a sign of neurotoxicity. Watch for this symptom even while the child is playing, and see if the frequency of startles increases over time.

Persistent fussiness: The baby may cry a lot, even cry all night without sleep. Babies sleep for 15-20 minutes, wake up crying for 15-20 minutes and then go back to sleep. Many parents often explain that their baby has sore mouth spots, but that is not the case. It is due to neurotoxicity at a very early stage.

To prevent hand, foot and mouth disease, Dr. Hong Nhan recommends: The disease is transmitted through the digestive tract, so it is necessary to ensure body hygiene. Many people think that children with hand, foot and mouth disease should not be bathed. If the child does not have a fever, he or she should take a bath once a day to remove the virus from the body. At the same time, implement food hygiene and safety to avoid re-infection from patient waste.

Especially, when a child is infected in an environment with many other children such as family, kindergarten, etc., they must be isolated for at least 10 days to avoid spreading the infection to other members. Perform house cleaning; Members taking care of sick children absolutely adhere to hand washing because this is an intermediary of disease transmission between family members.

Other members also clean, keep their bodies clean and healthy, and eat enough to prevent illness. Pay attention to the principle of 10-day isolation from sick children because the virus excreted through the digestive tract is capable of infecting others.

N. Huyen