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SALT LAKE CITY — Some doctors in Utah are reporting more cases of a virus among children with an interesting name - hand, foot and mouth disease.
"People can transmit the virus up to two weeks after their first symptoms," says University of Utah women's specialist and professor Dr. Kirtly Jones. In an interview with Utah's Morning News, Dr. Jones says unlike the viruses you're familiar with in the winter, hand, foot and mouth disease is more common in the summer.
"It's a relatively common disease in kids, usually kids under the age of ten," Dr. Jones says. "It causes a rash or blisters in the mouth, and a rash on the palms and soles."
Her best advice for treatment? There really isn't one, except to make your child as comfortable as possible during recovery.
"Drinks, cool ice, fluids, and a small amount of acetaminophen, which is Tylenol, or ibuprofen for fever. They can rinse their mouth with some anesthetic mouth wash," Dr. Jones says.
Dr. Jones appears every Monday morning at 6:45 on KSL Newsradio.
