Recently, many parents have reported that kindergarten classes have been suspended due to hand, foot and mouth disease, and several children in their classes have gotten sick. Moms and dads are especially anxious about this situation, fearing that their children will be infected. They also heard that even if they have been vaccinated, they may still get HFMD, so they really don’t know what to do. Let’s learn more about HFMD and how to prevent it today! Hand, foot and mouth disease is a common infectious disease in children, and April to June is the high incidence of the disease every year. HFMD is caused by enterovirus infections and is predominantly found in children under 5 years of age. Most patients have mild symptoms, mainly characterized by skin rashes on the mouth, hands, feet and buttocks. A few will develop serious complications such as encephalitis, acute flaccid paralysis, neurogenic pulmonary edema or pulmonary hemorrhage, and cardiopulmonary failure. How is HFMD spread? Prevention can only be effective if you know how the virus is transmitted. The most common types of virus are enterovirus 71 and coxsackievirus A16, with type 71 being more common in China. Therefore, there is only a monovalent vaccine against enterovirus 71 on the market. The vaccine was developed independently by China and is the only vaccine available on the market worldwide. Both patients with HFMD and those with latent infection are the source of infection. This is because there is an incubation period of 3 to 5 days after infection with the virus. Compared to patients, such latent infections are not easily detected and therefore require special vigilance. The virus is mostly contracted through close contact with the patient’s feces, herpes fluid, nasopharyngeal secretions, saliva and contact with contaminated hands, towels, handkerchiefs, dental cups, toys, cutlery, bottles, bedding and other items or the environment. Therefore, cutting off the means of transmission is an important part of HFMD prevention. What should I do if I have HFMD? Parents should not be overly nervous when their child is diagnosed with HFMD. A few cases of this disease develop into serious illnesses, and most of them are relatively mild. Proper care can prevent the disease from getting worse, as well as relieve your child’s discomfort during the illness. 1. Observe the condition. If the child appears high fever does not go away, headache, vomiting, depression, drowsiness, whistling shallow fast, difficult to whistle and other symptoms of aggravation, we should consult the doctor in a timely manner, do not use a variety of home remedies to help the child to relieve. This not only can not help the child, and may even cause serious consequences. 2, supplemental nutrition, supplemental water. Children often refuse to eat because of the pain caused by oral herpes, so parents will worry about their children being hungry, forced to eat and prepare all kinds of so-called nutritious food. During the disease, ensure nutritional supplementation to help the recovery of the disease. Parents can prepare foods that are fluid, semi-fluid, light in taste and easy to digest for their children. Children may be at risk of dehydration due to high fever, so it is important to keep them hydrated while supplementing nutrition. 3.Maintain oral hygiene. Although your child’s mouth is in obvious pain, it’s still important to have your child rinse his or her mouth with warm water or drink water after meals. This is also done to prevent the occurrence of infectious situations. 4, ensure rest. During the disease, ensure the quality of sleep is also very important for the recovery of the disease, if the child is in a feverish state, parents can regularly monitor the body temperature. No special circumstances, no need to wake up the baby. 5. Disinfect your home. Clean the furniture, toys, floor, etc. that you often touch every day. The baby’s toilet can be disinfected with 84 disinfectant (diluted according to the instructions). 6, good isolation. Home isolation time limit for 1 week after the disappearance of all the symptoms of the child, during this period of time the child try to avoid going out, not to go to kindergarten and public places where people gather, avoid contact with other children to play. Especially for families with two children, if possible, try to isolate the two children; if not, after taking care of the affected child, when touching another child, the hands must be washed clean, and avoid contact with the secretions of the affected child by the unaffected child. 7. Symptomatic treatment. For children with fever, acetaminophen or ibuprofen can be used to reduce fever, and physical cooling will relieve the child’s discomfort to some extent. Children who already have a rash, cut the nails short, try to avoid children scratching the rash, resulting in infection. How to prevent Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease? Some parents are unconcerned about the general preventive measures, such as diligent ventilation and hand-washing, and feel that they will not be of much help. However, from the point of view of the transmission route, good personal hygiene and environmental hygiene are particularly important. 1. Pay attention to hand hygiene, especially washing hands with water, hand sanitizer or soap before touching the mouth and nose, before eating or handling food, after going to the toilet, after touching herpes/whistling secretions, after changing diapers, or after handling feces-contaminated items. 2. Do not share towels or other personal belongings with others. Avoid close contact with the patient, such as kissing. 4.Use disposable towels or paper towels to clean up patients’ nasopharyngeal secretions, vomit, feces, etc., and promptly disinfect the surfaces of objects or environments contaminated by the above secretions or excretions. 5. Avoid taking children to participate in group activities during the epidemic period of HFMD. 6. Get vaccinated against HFMD.