Cause
The hand-mouth-foot disease is caused by viruses. Various pathogens come into question, but they all belong to the group of so-called “human enteroviruses”. Especially in the summer and autumn months, they infect us, but they are also very widespread in the environment, unlike some other pathogens.
Enteroviruses mainly colonize the human intestine. The hand-mouth-foot disease is caused by a number of different enteroviruses, all of which are from group A of enteroviruses. These include Coxsackie A viruses and Coxsackie B viruses and enteroviruses 71 and the so-called ECHO viruses.
Coxsackie A and B viruses also have different subclasses. In hand-mouth-foot disease, Coxsackie A16 and A6 play a particularly important role. In the B group, it is mainly Coxsackie B2 and B5 that are important.
It is also interesting to note that enteroviruses belong to the family of picornaviruses and, unlike humans, store their genetic material in the form of RNA. As causes of hand-mouth-foot disease, various models are considered as infection routes. One possibility is the so-called fecal-oral transmission, i.e. the transmission of the pathogen via stool excretion.
Even after the symptoms have subsided, the enteroviruses can still be detected in the stool after several weeks and there is a risk of infection. Another way to become infected with hand-mouth-foot disease is to get droplet infection by coughing, sneezing and/or kissing. Another possibility is the smear infection.
The pathogens can be transmitted primarily via the hands if there is a lack of hygiene and close contact. The hand-mouth-foot disease is widespread among the population, so it has a high degree of infestation. This means that from a certain age on, almost everyone has had contact with the disease.
In most cases it is very harmless, if not completely without any symptoms. The most common group among which hand-mouth-foot disease occurs are small children under 10 years of age. Of course, this disease can also occur in older children or adults, but usually much less frequently than in small children.
