SAVANNA-LA-MAR, Westmoreland — While not at an alarming level, the Westmoreland Health Department is reporting an increase in the number of young children in the parish being diagnosed with hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) over the past two weeks.

The revelation comes at a time when children are attending summer programmes and preparing for the upcoming school year in September. Medical officer of health for the Westmoreland Health Department Dr Marcia Graham is hopeful that this will not impact the new school term.

“We don’t think that this will be an issue that will run into September from the current cases. But we are visiting the schools because summer school is in progress, and so we want to make sure that we don’t have any further spread,” assured the medical officer.

Dr Graham was speaking with the
Jamaica Observer following a presentation she made during the regular monthly meeting of the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation on Thursday.

While there have been no cases recorded for most weeks since the start of the year, the health department is now seeing an increase between June 21 and July 4. Specific data was not provided.

“The students were from different institutions: basic school, early childhood education institution, and for the last week we also had a couple of primary school students who were involved,” revealed Dr Graham.

HFMD is a highly contagious viral disease caused primarily by the Coxsackievirus (most commonly A16 or A6) and the Enterovirus A71. It is entirely unrelated to the foot-and-mouth disease that affects livestock.

HFMD is usually spread when persons share close contact such as hugging, kissing, and the sharing of utensils. In a school setting, toys that children play with and the touching of common surface areas contribute to the spread. The virus is also spread through coughs or sneezes.

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The medical officer gave examples of symptoms and prevention measures.

“When you have the disease, you tend to get a fever, you feel unwell, persons might lose their appetite, they have a little sore throat. But then, the hallmark of it is to have sores on the hand, foot, and mouth. Some of these present as blisters, and if the blisters burst, the germ is inside the blister, so someone who comes in touch with a blister that has burst can also contract it that way,” explained Dr Graham.

“It is very important that when persons have this disease, they do not go to school. We encourage them to stay at home until they get better so they don’t spread it to other persons. We also encourage them to do proper handwashing so that the germ doesn’t spread from their hands to other surfaces and therefore other persons can get it from door handles, from high-touch surfaces. We also encourage them if they are coughing or sneezing to wear a mask so that they don’t spread the virus that way,” she added.

Dr Graham noted that once an individual has no underlying health condition, he should recover from the virus within two weeks.

“You might have the exception of a child who might have an underlying medical condition that compromises [his] immune system that would delay their recovery, but usually within one to two weeks they are good to go again,” she explained.

The medical officer also assured that the virus is not fatal.

“This is not one of the diseases that tend to have any long-term adverse sequelae or adverse outcomes. It’s usually rate-limiting, and once the person recovers, they don’t have any residual illness or long-term effects from it. It’s not one of those deadly viruses, thankfully,” stated Dr Graham.