What You Can Do When Your Child Gets Hand Foot Mouth Disease

What is HFMD?

HFMD is highly contagious and can easily spread by direct and indirect contact with an infected person. Infected individuals remain contagious up to 6 weeks, long after apparent symptom recovery. HFMD is deadly when EV71 is involved, causing complications to the heart and brain, and eventually resulting in death. In a Clinical Study done at Hunan Children’s Hospital, 35.62% developed complications from HFMD and 0.78% died from the disease.

How infectious is HFMD?

– High Infection and transmission rates at young ages
HFMD is an airborne virus transmitting through faecal-oral route, direct contact with respiratory droplets, nasal discharge and saliva. The basic reproduction number (R0) was estimated between 2.4 – 5.5 (SARS was R2.9 and COVID-19 is R4.08)1

– High mortality rates, seasonal and cyclical
Prognosis for HFMD is excellent except in large epidemics caused by EV71 every 3 years in which neurologic complications and death have been reported. It causes myocarditis, epididymitis, pneumonia, meningoencephalitis, and death. Taiwan had a mortality rate of 19.3%2, Singapore was at 5%. An Australian study reported 64% of HFMD cases to develop neurologic diseases3. Infection in the first trimester may lead to spontaneous abortion or intrauterine growth retardation.

– Product caters to all ages
According to Ministry of Health Singapore, 90% of children have had HFMD by age 12 and classifies it as an endemic disease, and up to 20% of the HFMD cases would have complications involving the deadly strain, Enterovirus 71(EV71). Family members would also be very susceptible to the virus when the child is quarantined at home.

How many people suffer from HFMD?

Worldwide HFMD occurrences are reported daily. A seasonal pattern is present in temperate climates, with a peak incidence in late summer and early fall (week 26 – 36). WHO reported 3 million HFMD cases in China, Japan, Malaysia, North Korea, Singapore and Vietnam in 2014 and cases have been rising. Most cases of HFMD affect children younger than 5 years, although cases in adults are reported.

– ASEAN
According to Ministry of Health Singapore (MOH), 90% of children aged 12 and younger would have had HFMD.
MOH declared HFMD to be Top 5 most contagious febrile viral illness in 2018 and is an endemic disease. 80% of those infected are asymptomatic but contagious and up to 20% of the HFMD cases would have complications involving the deadly strain, Enterovirus 71. According to WHO, Singapore had 26,252 reported cases by Week 30 in 2018. In Vietnam, there was 2,378 in Week 33 in 2018 alone. In ASEAN, there are 650 million people and 30% are 0-14 years old. Up to 90% would have HFMD and that accounts for 78 million children would have had HFMD before the age of 5.

Financial and Social impact on families affected

According to an NUS report funded by NMRC HSR, the average daily cost of looking after the infected child at home is $320. The average number of days the child must stay at home is 6.8 days to fully recover and the caregiver takes on an average of 4 days of paid leave, 1.7 days of unpaid leave and 2.1 days working from home. The total cost of staying at home amounts to $2,800 which includes medication & consultation, employed parent taking time off, hiring a babysitter, transportation and lost of school fees indirectly. The family would have to quarantine at home and refuse any visitors or refrain from going out to avoid further transmission.

Can doctors respond?

As doctors cant tell from symptoms align if the EV71 is the cause, they would need lab tests and neither can they ensure only the milder viruses are involved, hence every incidence of HFMD needs monitoring, making HFMD on its list of infection disease to be monitored weekly by MOH. While doctors can only prescribe medication for the symptoms, the child and immediate family members in the same household will need to be quarantined for 10 days.

What is the cure or treatment now?

Today, there is an all-natural product developed by Theo10. It is a patented discovery of a food ingredient and is the 1st in the world to inhibit the infectivity of the virus that causes death and serious illnesses as well as helping with the symptoms of fever and ulcers. Developed with Temasek Life Sciences Laboratory over the past few years, it is now registered with Health Science Authority as a Traditional Medicine given that it contains no chemicals and have medical purpose of helping to treat mouth ulcers.

Theo10 Oral Gel would treat the symptoms and prevent the virus from developing into complications including death within 24hrs. Containing organic peppermint essential oil, aloe Barbadensis miller and a patented food ingredient, it comes in a syringe that would not touch any parts of the mouth when administered. The gel would electro-statically stick onto the walls of the oral cavity and oesophagus and fully envelop the virus. The child or adult simply eat and swallow the gel every 2hrs over 14 hrs and appetite should resume the next day with the fever subsiding. Ulcers would start to resolve over a period of time.

See the full medical information here: