This was a post against another thread; however, I thought it deserve its own thread:

The human disease several posts above are referring to is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT from the animal "foot and mouth disease = FMD" that's causing all the fuss, despite the confusing similarity of the "common" names.

The human illness that, for example, the youngster in Japan had is "hand, foot and mouth disease" = "enteroviral vesicular stomatitis with exanthem" and as noted above is not uncommon in children. It occurs worldwide. It is most often due to infection with one of the Coxsackie viruses but can be due to several other viruses.

Coxsackie is a *very* common infection of childhood, causing a range of symptoms from nothing at all to (rarely) severe heart problems. The virus group was named for its first discovery from samples obtained from a person from Coxsackie, New York, south of Albany NY (as an aside, I lived for two years just outside the town of Coxsackie when I worked at the NY State Dept of Health).

Again, these are *completely different* infections. You're comparing apples and oranges but the result isn't fruit salad. Please see some of the posts from the last few days here on GICC. I have cross-posted information about the animal disease in several recent replies that may be helpful to you.

--Andre Weltman, M.D., M.Sc., public health physician

-- Andre Weltman, M.D. (aweltman@state.pa.us), March 16, 2001.

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See these threads here on GICC: Foot and Mouth Spreads to Middle East,

and

U.S., Canada ban EU animal imports to keep out F&M disease,

-- Andre Weltman, M.D. (aweltman@state.pa.us), March 16, 2001.

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The URLs didn't come through just now, here it is again: See these threads here on GICC:

Foot and Mouth Spreads to Middle East,

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=004nqV

and

U.S., Canada ban EU animal imports to keep out F&M disease,

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=004nV6

-- Andre Weltman, M.D. (aweltman@state.pa.us), March 16, 2001.

ad:

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), March 16, 2001

Answers

Thanks Ken! I was looking under the wrong name and I did call the doctor to confirm the info. and from what he said the above info is 100% corect.

-- renee oneill{md.} (oneillsr@home.com), March 16, 2001.

THANK YOU!!!! I can't tell you how much I appreciate you clearing up this point for me - it answers quite a few questions!! Also explains some of the conflicting information I've gotten - I can't thank you enough!!!

Sue

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), March 16, 2001.

My little one got the coxsackie bug 1-1/2 years ago, it was no fun, DW and I both got it - so much for the 11% chance as an adult to get it.

The 'blisters' [little bumps] on the hands, feet and throat itch and hurt like mad! And when the little one can't tell you what's wrong it makes things even worse.

Was hoping that this was the same bug, while it was annoying it was gone within a week.

-- (perry@ofuzzy1.com), March 16, 2001.