26 Mar 2010 - Poor Jerlene got HFMD!

This morning, Jerlene woke up very excited because she knew that her teachers will be bringing her class for an excursion today. She has been looking forward to this day since few days back. She volunteered to change to school T-Shirt and we left home earlier than normal because she got to reach school by 8:30am.

When we reached the school, somehow she became very quiet. The teacher took her temperature as per normal and found that she actually was having fever (37.9). And when the teacher checked on her throat, she saw some red spot around the throat and gum. I saw that too. As there was a recent confirmed case of Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease (HFMD) in the childcare, the teacher was not taking any chance and advise me to bring her to a doctor immediately. When I told Jerlene that she cannot go with her class, I can see that she was very disappointed. But I can also see that she understand because she was not feeling very well. So I quickly brought her to see a doctor and confirmed that it's really HFMD. She was given one week MC, which means she had to stay at home for the whole of next week.

HFMD is an infectious disease caused by certain viruses. It affects all age group but young children below 5 are more likely to be infected. HFMD is spread through direct contact with saliva, nasal discharge, faeces or the fluid from the blisters of an infected person. It can also be spread indirectly through articles contaminated by these secretions. From the news and doctor, we understand that there was an outbreak of HFMD currently, especially in childcare centres, kindergartens and schools.

For the whole of today, Jerlene's fever has been on and off. After taking paracetamol, her fever will go away but in about 4-5 hrs time, her temperature will go up again. Other than fever, her appetite was still quite ok and she was still active, which was a relief. I think Jerlene is considered mild case because she only got some mouth ulcers.
I understand that for some serious cases, the child will have rash (some with blisters) on the hands, feet and occasionally buttocks, arms and legs. Really hope that Jerlene can recover fast.

As HMFD is contagious, I had to leave Javier at my parent's place till Jerlene recovers, probably in a week's time. Actually thought of celebrating Javier's birthday this coming Sunday but most likely it had to be canceled or postponed.....sigh........