Hand-foot-mouth disease returns, invades schools
JAKARTA (JP): Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) returned to Jakarta and affected a number of kindergartens and elementary schools in Jakarta recently.
Several preschools in Jakarta, including the Harapan Ibu preschool in Pondok Pinang, South Jakarta, the Kinderland preschool in West Jakarta and the Pembangunan Jaya elementary school in Bintaro, South Jakarta, have temporarily shut down school activities for up to a week due to the contagious disease.
The Kinderland found that seven of its pupils were suffering from the disease and decided to close on Wednesday as a preventive measure for the others.
"Although parents did not voice any concerns, we decided to temporarily close our school. We will fumigate and thoroughly clean the school to banish the disease," the principal of the school, who refused to be named, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
When the students return to school next Monday, Kinderland will closely monitor the children, and those who show even the slightest symptoms will be sent home.
"Otherwise, all the sterilization carried out over the next few days will have been ineffective," the principal said.
Harapan Ibu discovered two pupils with the disease, while the Tarakanita preschool in Citra Raya, Tangerang, found four.
"The school's management is still discussing its next step. It discovered the cases on Monday," said Uli Simatupang, whose daughter is a pupil of the Tarakanita preschool.
According to data of the private Pondok Indah hospital, there has been an increase in patients treated for HFMD, most of them children under 5 years old.
"During the last two months, we have treated around 20 children. Previously, such patients numbered only one or two," said Yanti, a nurse at the child polyclinic of the hospital, adding that none was hospitalized.
The Cipto Mangunkusumo and Gatot Subroto state hospitals had no record of recent cases of the disease.
The Bintaro International hospital in Tangerang also has no patients with the disease. Recently, the hospital tested a number of children who displayed some of the disease symptoms, but the tests proved negative.
According to Dr. Mulyadi Muchtiar, the medical manager of the hospital, children are most prone to the disease as their immunity is relatively low.
Contagious
Although the disease is highly contagious, those with a good immune system are unlikely to be infected, Mulyadi said.
"What's important is to increase the immunity of the children to keep them from being easily infected by any disease, not just HMFD," he explained, adding that the disease was caused by coxsackie A16 virus, and enterovirus 7.
Those affected by HFMD suffer the same symptoms as influenza, such as fever, a running nose, and subsequently the appearance of mouth ulcers, and a rash on the hands and feet.
In the most extreme case and when not treated properly, the virus can further deteriorate the immune system and can cause dysfunction of organs, including the brain, that can result in death.
The enterovirus can easily spread through saliva, and can contaminate food or drink. A person can also be infected with the disease by touching an object that has been contaminated by the virus.
"It's not a deadly virus, but it is always much better to detect the disease in its early stages and administer medicine as soon as possible," Mulyadi remarked.
The first outbreak of the disease in Indonesia was in November 2000, when a preschool in Pondok Indah found two cases at the school and immediately closed for two days to prevent the virus from spreading any further.
Last year in Malaysia and Singapore, 1,150 children were diagnosed with the disease, and of that number four died.
The city health agency recorded last November some 30 cases of infants suffering from the contagious hand, foot and mouth disease.
Deputy head of the agency Ruhul Aflah said that the disease, which has been dubbed in several countries as a lethal one, was mostly discovered in the city's upmarket housing estates, such as the Pondok Indah area.
She added that all of the recorded 30 cases had been found in middle- and upper-income neighborhoods and there were no reports that the disease had yet infected children from poor families.
The disease is usually found in cows and other farm animals. Adults can also be infected by the disease, but children under the age of five are especially susceptible.
The incubation period of the disease is from three to seven days. "The ailing child can be treated at home, meaning that the sick person does not have to stay in hospital as long as he has adequate time to rest, enough nutrition and vitamin C. The child should also see a doctor for a routine checkup," Ruhul said.(06)