A viral infection running rampant at a local daycare could be affecting your kids. The highly-contagious viral infection has no effective treatment.
A local pediatrician says that she sees children come in with the infection most often this time of year, during the transition from spring into summer.
It’s caused by the coxsackie virus. The hand, foot, and mouth disease causes fever, blisters on hands and feet, and painful ulcers in the mouth.
“The ones in the mouth really hurt. [Kids] don’t want to eat anything, constantly drooling because even swallowing their own saliva hurts,” said Dr. Adelnery Gonzalez at Huebner Pediatrics, who added that the diseases is highly contagious and often spreads at daycares and public play areas. “Kids are notorious for putting toys in their mouth, leaving them, and another child will come and get them. And that’s how this is transmitted.”
The disease can spread through body fluids, specifically saliva, ruptured blisters, or the oral and fecal route. And while it’s most common with infants and toddlers, it can also still spread to adults.
Amarylis Galindo, the owner of a local daycare and school, says that seven of their kids have shown symptoms of the viral infection.
“They start with a couple of blisters, but if they keep touching and rubbing,” Galindo observed. “Here in the school, we saw a couple. We have many kids with many blisters in the hands and mouth.”
Dehydration is the biggest risk since swallowing can become painful. And there are no antibiotics to treat it.
“It’s a virus, so it’s going to run its course. Ice cold drinks, jello, pudding, Tylenol and Motrin,” Dr. Gonzalez said.
Galindo says that her staff is doing their part by disinfecting toys, wiping desks, and asking parents to keep sick kids at home.
Dr. Gonzalez says that parents can do their part by having everyone in their family wash their hands regularly and keeping a clean environment by preventing the sharing of toys and utensils so that the disease doesn’t spread.
If you see any symptoms in your child, you’re urged to visit a pediatrician.
