Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease Cases Slightly Increases in Shuga City

Orange Walk residents have raised concerns over the Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. Love News spoke with a Pediatrician from the Northern Medical Specialist Plaza, Dr. Kent Novelo, who explains that while there is a slight increase in the number of cases, there is no outbreak. Dr. Novelo adds that the virus is highly contagious, which is why around this time of the year it is common to see increased infections. That is due to children going back to daycare or school. 

Dr.Kent Novelo, Pediatrician, Northern Medical Specialists Plaza: “Well I’m not sure about the word worry about it but yes they should be aware of it perhaps would be a better term because it is going around and to the extent that it can lead to dehydration for example and the child may need hospitalization and I’ve had a case like that I would say just be aware of the other children in the classroom. If the rest of the students are healthy then there’s no reason to worry about it or to be concerned about it any at all. My advice would be if you’re a parent of a child who has these symptoms that I just mentioned; fever, sore throat, blisters or sores in the mouth, hands and feet then keep your child at home do not send your child to school because it is extremely contagious in kids less than five years of age.”

Dr. Novelo advises parents to monitor their child’s symptoms and keep them at home if they display any sores on the hands, feet, or mouth. 

Dr.Kent Novelo, Pediatrician, Northern Medical Specialists Plaza: “The genus or the group of viruses is the enteroviruses but the specific ones would be the Coxsackievirus which again is a handful of them yeah. Again we didn’t speak about treatment but if I can speak a little to that there’s no one specific treatment for it. The key here was the word virus which means it is an infection so the child will have fever but we do not give antibiotics for this. Antibiotics are for infections caused by bacteria. I repeat this is not a bacteria so antibiotics do nothing for this. Number two the core treatment perhaps would be pain management and by pain management I mean giving Tylenol which is paracetamol, Ibuprofen for example whatever works best for the child.”