Patient's question:
The day before yesterday, I unknowingly played with a child who has hand, foot, and mouth disease. Now the baby has had a fever for 2 days, with temperatures around 38 degrees Celsius. There's just one blister inside the mouth, and no other symptoms. The doctor said it doesn't seem like this disease and gave the baby an IV drip. But I'm not sure if this is the early stage of hand, foot, and mouth disease. Could you please tell me what symptoms are typical for hand, foot, and mouth disease?Doctor's answer:
Oral mucosal rashes appear relatively early, initially as rice-grain-sized maculopapules or vesicles with a surrounding erythema, primarily located on the tongue and both cheeks, and often occurring on the lip and tooth side as well. Maculopapules or vesicles appear on distal areas such as the hands and feet, either flat or slightly elevated, without itching. The maculopapules turn darker after about 5 days and then resolve; the vesicles are round or oval-shaped, flat and elevated, containing cloudy fluid, with their long axis aligned with the skin creases. They vary in size like soybeans and are generally painless and itchy, leaving no marks after healing. Hand, foot, and mouth disease may not always manifest in all three forms in the same patient. Blisters and rashes typically resolve within a week.