KIDAPAWAN CITY -- Three more cases of suspected foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) were monitored by personnel of the Rural Health Unit (RHU) in M’lang town, North Cotabato.
Dr. Glicerio Sotea, head of M'lang RHU, said the patients were children aged two to five.
Mouth swab samples were already taken from the patients and were sent for confirmation to the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine (RITM) of the Department of Health in Metro Manila, Sotea said.
Health officials in M'lang wanted to know if the foot-and-mouth disease cases are the same as that of the disease monitored in other Asian countries, which caused deaths to many children.
Based on records from the M'lang RHU, the patients suffered sores on the mouth, hands, feet, buttocks and legs.
"Although sores may be painful, the illness usually doesn’t last more than a week or so," an RHU staff said.
The foot-and-mouth disease, the RHU said, is caused by a virus called an enterovirus, which spreads easily through coughing and sneezing.
Also, it can spread through infected stool, such as when you change a diaper or when a young child gets stool on his or her hands and then touches objects that other children put in their mouths.
Some of the symptoms include fever of around 38 degrees to 39 degrees, blisters or sores that may appear in or on the mouth and on the hands, and sometimes buttocks and feet.
A skin rash may appear before the blisters do, an RHU staff said.
Since July, the RHU said, the M’lang town has monitored four suspected foot-and-mouth disease cases. (MCM of Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
