Highly contagious Hand-Foot-Mouth virus spreading in Middle Tennessee
“It is extremely contagious and having hundreds of blisters for five straight days is no fun.”
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - With COVID-19 and flu cases rising around the country, the highly contagious Hand-Foot-Mouth virus is appearing in Middle Tennessee.
Brett Wolfe woke up Sunday morning with a 102-degree fever and chills. He got tested for COVID, strep, and the flu. Everything came up negative.
When red spots on his hands and feet started multiplying, he sent pictures to a nurse who’s also a family member.
She immediately diagnosed him with Hand-Foot-and-Mouth Disease, a mild, contagious viral infection common in young children.
“Today I’m pretty scabbing over to where I don’t think the blisters are contagious anymore,” said 29-year-old Brett Wolfe of Murfreesboro. “I can pretty much put on shoes. It is extremely contagious and having hundreds of blisters for five straight days is no fun.”
“Typically what children exhibit when they have hand-foot-and-mouth disease is that they would have sores and blisters in their mouth, and parents may also see some red spots and some blisters on their hands and on their feet,” said Dr. Joseph Gigante, Professor of Pediatrics at Monroe Carroll, Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt.
“Adults who get it will get the sores in the mouth and maybe the spots on their hands and feet. The other thing they may get is they may get a fever, and they also get body aches.”
Dr. Gigante said the virus appears most commonly in kids under five, but adults can catch it by touching a child’s blister and then putting their hands to their mouth or eyes, or when their infected child coughs.
“The big problem that kids run into, especially when they get the sores and blisters in their mouth, is that it hurts,” said Dr. Gigante. “Because the blisters and sores hurt, they stop eating and they stop drinking, and that puts them at risk for getting dry and hydrated.”
Dr. Gigante said there is no cure for the virus. Fever, body aches, and blisters should go away on their own.
Parents should practice good hand-washing and scrub down table tops and other surfaces. Wolfe, who has a three-month-old of his own, believes he caught the virus from a co-worker’s toddler, who came to his workplace over Christmas break.
“When you’re talking about walking around on like open wounds, it’s just painful.,” Wolfe added. “Especially if you know someone who has it, I wouldn’t mess with it.”
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