Disease, hand-foot-and-mouth
Disease, hand-foot-and-mouth: A viral syndrome with a rash on the hands and feet and in the mouth. The internal rash (the enanthem) consists of blisters and little ulcers that may involve not only the lining of the mouth but also the gums, palate, and tongue. The external rash on the body (the exanthem) typically affects the hands (most commonly), feet and, sometimes, the buttocks. There may also be sore throat, irritability, decreased appetite, and fever.
Picture of characteristic rash and blisters of hand foot and mouth disease
The disease is caused by various viruses, including several types of coxackievirus-coxsackieviruses A16 (most often), A5, A9, A10, B1 and B3, and enterovirus 71. The incubation period is short, on the order of 4 to 6 days. The disease is most frequent in summer and fall. The rate of clinical expression in hand-foot-and-mouth disease is high with the enanthem-exanthem pattern evident in nearly 100% of preschoolers, nearly 40% of school-age children and about 10% of adults. The illness is characteristically self-limited and is usually over and done within a week when due to its most common cause: coxsackievirus A16. In outbreaks due to enterovirus 71, the illness may be more severe with complications such as viral meningitis and encephalitis and paralytic disease. However, hand-foot-and-mouth disease as a rule tends fortunately to be mild and self-limited.
The condition was first reported in 1956 in Australia and by the early 60s had emerged as a common childhood illness around the world. It is also called hand-foot-and-mouth syndrome. The hyphens are sometimes dropped and it is termed hand, foot, and mouth disease or syndrome.
Read Also:
- Disease, Heberden
Disease, Heberden: There are two different Heberden diseases: Angina pectoris, chest pain that is often severe and crushing, due to an inadequate supply of oxygen to the heart muscle. Osteoarthritis of the small joints with nodules (Heberden nodes) in and about the last joint of the finger. Both diseases were described by the respected English […]
- Disease, Hirschsprung
Disease, Hirschsprung: A congenital abnormality (birth defect) of the bowel in which there is absence of the ganglia (nerves) in the wall of the bowel. Nerves are missing starting at the anus and extending a variable distance up the bowel. This results in megacolon (massive enlargement of the bowel) above the point where the nerves […]
- Disease, hemolytic, of the newborn
Disease, hemolytic, of the newborn: Abnormal breakup of red blood cells in the fetus or newborn.
- Disease, His
Disease, His: Named for the Swiss physician Wilhelm His, Jr. (who also described the bundle of His in the heart), this is a louse-borne disease first recognized in the trenches of World War I and so was called trench fever. Trench fever is a disease is estimated to have affected more than a million people […]
- Disease, His-Werner
Disease, His-Werner: Named for the Swiss physician Wilhelm His, Jr. (who also described the bundle of His in the heart) and the German physician Heinrich Werner (who was not the Werner who described Werner’s syndrome). This is a louse-borne disease that was first recognized in the trenches of World War I and so was called […]