Materia Medica Malaysiana

Send kids with HFM symptoms to hospital

Children who show symptoms of Hand-Foot-Mouth (HFM) disease such as fever and rashes that become blisters on the feet and hands should immediately be sent to the hospital to avert a major outbreak.
The other symptoms to look out for are lethargy, loss of appetite, muscle ache, flu- like symptoms and upper respiratory infection; vomiting; diarrhoea; rashes, blisters and ulcers in the mouth; and neurological symptoms like headache, stiff neck, weakness of limbs, loss of consciousness and coma.
Health Ministry's Communicable Disease Control Division director Dr Ramlee Rahmat issued this advice to parents following an increasing trend in the number of HFM cases reported nationwide.
"Outbreaks could have been averted if parents were alert to their children's illnesses. Many do not seek medical help until complications linked to the disease set in," he said.
He said the HFM disease usually affected children below five years but it could also strike older children and adults.
The symptoms appear three to six days after the virus infection and patients may feel unwell for a day.