The Alabama Department of Public Health says the first case popped up in the northern part of the state. The severity of the symptoms got the attention of health officials.
Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease normally sticks around for two to three days but not this strain, identified by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the Coxsackie A6 virus. It’s responsible for severe breakouts on the hands and feet.
“To the point that it actually peels where they’ve had problems with the severity from that in itself and being unable to you know actually walk for a few days or one particular person was actually unable to walk for almost two weeks because of the skin and the peeling that occurred from the rash itself,” says Dr. Mary McIntyre, Acting State Epidemiologist with Disease Control and Prevention at the Alabama Department of Public Health.
Based on the specimens collected, 14 cases have been confirmed by the CDC in the north, south and central parts of the state.
At the Pediatric Clinic in Opelika, Dr. Richard Glaze says they aren’t seeing an unusually high number of cases of hand, foot and mouth disease. He says now is not the time to push the panic button, but keep a watchful eye out for symptoms.
“Generally what I recommend to folks is kids less than six months if they’re running a fever, I’d like to see them come in in about 24 hours. Certainly if anybody has a rash that concerns them we’d like to see them. Kids older than six months a couple of days of fever they can come on in,” says Dr. Glaze.
Symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease include fever, rash on the palms of hands and soles of feet, mouth sores, and dehydration.
We checked with the East Alabama Medical Center to see if any cases had shown up there.
“We have not seen any of these cases at the East Alabama Medical Center,” Brooke Bailey, the Manager of Infection Control and Prevention at the hospital told us.
The best way to protect yourself and your children from hand foot and mouth disease is frequent hand washing. Also disinfect surfaces, including toys, and avoid close contact with infected people.
Those with the disease are being advised to stay home until they have no fever, the lesions have scabbed over. Treatment is mainly supportive, treating the fever and dehydration. The disease is spread person to person and surface to person.
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