Prince George’s County Public Schools warned families this week that there are cases of hand, foot and mouth disease at over 40 schools across the county.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease primarily affects young children, although anyone can contract the highly contagious disease. Infected people spread the virus that causes it via respiratory droplets, fluid from blisters, saliva and human waste, county school officials said.
As of Thursday, there were cases observed at over 40 schools across the Maryland county. Prince George’s school officials did not identify the schools or specify how many of the affected facilities are elementary, middle or high schools, respectively.
The initial symptoms of hand, foot and mouth disease include fever, sore throat, other cold-like symptoms and a loss of appetite. Within one or two days of those symptoms occurring, infected people exhibit painful sores in their mouths and a red rash on the palms of their hands, soles of their feet, buttocks or genitalia that can develop into blisters, school officials said.
The rash lasts for about a week to 10 days. There is no particular treatment for hand, foot and mouth disease, but county school officials urged people to be diligent with washing hands, cleaning off surfaces or objects that had saliva on them and covering their mouths when coughing or sneezing.
The school system is also taking extra measures to stop the spread.
“We have crews coming in after hours to clean. We have instructed our cleaning crews to — what they would normally wait until at the end of the day to clean — do it twice a day in our attempts to curtail it as much as possible. We’re also going to start increasing hand washing for our students, making sure that’s done more frequently,” Prince George’s County Public Schools Office of School Health Supervisor Dr. Traci Jones told WTOP-FM.
