Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Hand Foot and Mouth Disease: Better Safe than sorry ...

The Hand Foot and Mouth disease has been going on in Sarawak for a couple of months already ...the number of cases has gone up in the recent days ..and in today's Borneo Post, the headline claimed that it has now reached an "outbreak" status ..so, that is not a good news people! Especially those with small kids (up to 10 years old) .. both of my nephews had this HFMD two years ago ...so, I know how  hard it can be on toddlers ..plus there is no specific medication for this, you'll just have to wait till it runs its course (between 1-2 weeks).

So, parents out there, please be extra careful. Don't bring your kids to crowded places ...We have banned the kids from shopping malls, airport, and other public places ...Alistair and Adik have not set foot at the malls for a month now. Throughout the one-week school holiday, Al had to stay indoor ...because our next door neighbour told us that both his kids were having HFMD ...so, as a precaution, both Al and adik had to play indoors for the last two weeks ...The only time they ventured outside was last Saturday night, coz we went for a family dinner to celebrate Jane's birthday and on Friday for adik's clinic visit ....but lucky for us, the both were totally engrossed playing indoor ..and they were not keen to go outside coz of the frequent rains and bad weather ...Thank God for small mercies!

Tips for parents (I read this in the paper today and the leaflets at the clinic):
i) being hygenic - teach the kids to be hygenic ...wash they hands all the time, use soaps or liquid soaps ...parents, who handle the kids must also be hygenic at all times.
ii) avoided crowded places ...and avoid people who had the symptoms ...
iii) dont let your kid go to school if they ae showing symptoms of flu etc ...better to let them stay at home - just to make sure that your kid wont spread it to other kids at school ...
iv) symptoms and images of blisters etc caused by HFMD from my previous entry (click here)


Hope this outbreak will end soon ...Al has already asked us why we never brought him to Giant and to McD ...

No comments: