Foot and mouth disease: causes, symptoms and treatment of the disease Foot and mouth disease is a disease that is considered a zoonotic infection. The vectors of the infection are cloven-hoofed animals. The disease occurs with the appearance of small vesicles on the mucous membrane of the mouth, near the mouth and at the nail bed. Also the patient suffers from a fever.


What is the disease?

People have known this disease since ancient times. Most often, the cause of the disease became non-compliance with the rules of personal hygiene and the rules of animal hygiene. In the late 18th century, doctors discovered that foot and mouth disease can be transmitted from infected cloven-hoofed animals to humans. In 1897, Liffler proved that the infectious agent penetrates through the pores of the bacterial filter.

RNA - containing virus is the causative agent of foot and mouth disease. This virus is characterized by high virulence. In addition, the virus resembles the epithelial structures of the skin and mucous membranes. The virus of the lizard is very stable. It is well tolerated by low temperatures, drying and is able to maintain its viability on animal wool for up to about four weeks. On human clothes, a virus can live up to three and a half weeks. To destroy the virus, it is necessary to irradiate UV or heat the virus to a high temperature. Doctors also destroy the virus of the raptor with special disinfectants: 1% ethylene oxide, 2% alkali or formalin 1%.

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The vector of the infection can be both domestic and wild artiodactyl animals. In addition, foot and mouth disease can tolerate some species of rodents, as well as some species of birds. Therefore, foot and mouth disease can be attributed to occupational disease, which is mainly distributed in rural areas. Most often people suffer from this disease who work in agricultural livestock enterprises, those who are engaged in slaughtering and processing of animal raw materials, as well as those who work at meat processing plants.

Children are infected with foot-and-mouth disease through the use of contaminated dairy products. However, this happens very rarely.

Causes of the disease

Every person who does not follow the rules of personal hygiene, runs the risk of contracting foot and mouth disease. It has already been mentioned above that most often people become infected from animals. But it is not necessary to contact a sick animal to get an FMD.It is enough to consume meat or milk from a sick animal. Infection into the body can also get through damaged skin or mucous membranes of the mouth or nose.

In the risk zone are those people who are in close contact with infected animals. Such contacts can be: slaughter, treatment, milking, objects that have been in contact with infected animals. Infection is not transmitted from person to person.

Symptoms of the disease

The incubation period of the disease is three to four days, but the disease can progress for two weeks or decrease to two days. Everything depends on the individual characteristics of the human body.

The infected person at the beginning of the disease feels a chill, as well as his body temperature rises to 40 degrees. Then, to these symptoms, headache, decreased appetite, severe pain in the lumbar region and muscle pain are added. On the first day of infection, the patient feels dryness and burning sensation in the mouth, as well as strong salivation. After a short period of time small bubbles of up to three millimeters begin to appear on the mucous membrane of the mouth. Most of the vesicles accumulate on the gums, on the tip and around the edges of the tongue, on the mucous membrane of the lips and cheeks. Inside the bubbles, a fluid accumulates, which gradually becomes turbid, and the diameter of the bubbles increases, resulting in erosion.

If a child becomes infected with this disease, he will complain of difficulty swallowing, of pain when chewing or talking. Against this background, children become very irritable, nervous and completely refuse food. In this case, salivation can be very strong, even up to the point that saliva will flow out of the mouth. Rashes may appear on the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose, stomach and conjunctiva. In addition, in children, pimples can appear on the face, forearms, between the fingers, on the hands, feet and legs. If the disease occurs without complications, then the fever passes through three to six days. After this, the child begins to recover. When recovered, all ulcers from acne quickly heal. On average, the disease lasts about two weeks.

Doctors also faced cases when the disease was chronic in a year and a half years, with occasional rashes.

If the virus has got to a person through the gastrointestinal tract, then stomatitis may not appear. In this case, the disease will proceed according to the type of acute gastroenteritis. The patient will have fever, symptoms of intoxication, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting and loose stools.

As a rule, patients recover completely without any complications. However, children who have recovered from FMD at an early age can face some consequences. There were also cases of death.

In adults, very rarely after foot and mouth disease, complications occur in the form of myocarditis, pneumonia, or purulent skin diseases.

Prevention of the disease

The best prevention of this disease is the control over the movements of animals, as well as over food of animal origin. If an animal shows foot and mouth disease, then it must immediately be eliminated from society. Do not take a sick animal to take milk, meat or wool.

In addition, it is very important to comply with personal hygiene and food processing rules of animal origin. Milk, oil and other components must necessarily be heat treated.

If the animal has become infected, it is necessary to observe the safety measures when caring for it. It is very important to notify the public about this. If a person has to work in the place where the infected animal was, then a person must observe a number of precautions. If a person has wounds or abrasions on his hands or mucous membranes, he is forbidden to work at the place where the infected animal was. After completion of work, it is necessary to disinfect 1% with chloramine. All are disinfected: premises, tools and even manure.

Treatment of

disease People who have been infected with foot-and-mouth disease need hospitalization. There are no special medicines to treat the disease, however, the treatment is done in a hospital. The main measures of treatment are directed to the care of the mucous membranes of the nose and oral cavity, as well as to local treatment, the purpose of which is to relieve the symptoms of the disease.

For the duration of hospitalization, the patient should consume only semi-liquid, moderate-temperature food that is easily absorbed by the body. The food should not contain any irritating ingredients: pepper, salt, spices, mustard, horseradish and the like. If a person can not eat on his own, he is fed through an umbrella or parenterally. For local treatment of the disease, doctors use ointments( oxolinic, interferon, florenal), and also use physiotherapy methods: UV irradiation and laser irradiation.