How often can you get the disease?
After surviving illness with a certain virus, a lifelong immunity exists. This does not mean, however, that hand-mouth-foot disease cannot reoccur. There are many different virus strains and subspecies that cause hand-mouth-foot disease and immunity exists only against one pathogen. However, a reinfection in kindergarten after a few weeks is rare, since in most cases all children carry the same strain of the pathogen. Vaccination against a dangerous subtype from South-East Asia is also possible if longer stays are planned.
Prophylaxis
There is no vaccination against hand-mouth-foot disease as there is for other childhood diseases such as measles, mumps or even rubella. The most important thing for an infection with the hand-mouth-foot disease is a good hand disinfection. This should be done regularly and really carefully, because the hand-mouth-foot disease has a high risk of infection.
After each visit to the toilet and after changing diapers in a sick child, the hands should be washed properly with soap and additionally disinfected with a disinfectant. Close contact with a child or adult suffering from hand-mouth-foot disease should be avoided. Kissing, hugging, close cuddling or even drinking from the same glass should also be avoided, since the viruses are transmitted primarily via body fluids such as saliva.
Diagnosis
The diagnosis of hand-mouth-foot disease is mainly made clinically. The disease manifests itself through its typical skin appearances on the palms of the hands and feet, so that the diagnosis can already be made based on their appearance. This usually makes a laboratory chemical examination superfluous.
Also the in most cases very mild course of the disease leads to the fact that often no laboratory diagnosis is necessary. However, if the pathogen is to be detected, a quick diagnosis can be made. This is in the form of a so-called enterovirus PCR, which can be used to detect the specific RNA of the enterovirus.
In addition, it is possible to detect the enteroviruses in stool samples, a throat swab or from the contents of the vesicles. If the hand-mouth-foot disease has a more severe course with involvement of the nervous system, it is also possible to obtain cerebrospinal fluid (medical liquor) through a so-called lumbar puncture and test it for the presence of enteroviruses. Differential diagnosis of inflammatory ulcers and rashes in the oral cavity must take into account some other diseases.An alternative for the occurring rash is chickenpox.
These do not only affect the palms of the hands and feet, but the whole body. Different stages of the disease occur simultaneously. In addition to fresh blisters, already burst and encrusted blisters can also be found on the body. Some diseases can also lead to inflammatory ulcers in the area of the oral mucosa. Besides the hand-mouth-foot disease, the so-called “mouth rot” (Stomatitis aphthosa), a herpes infection as well as the real foot-and-mouth disease cause similar complaints.