a new virus is spreading among children in Thane city near Mumbai. Many of them aged between 6 months and 5 years are visiting their paediatricians with complaints of mouth blisters, fever and rashes on hands and soles. These are symptoms of the hand-foot-mouth disease (hfmd).
On a daily basis, every paediatrician in Thane is seeing five to 10 patients. It is a serious outbreak; we fear the disease has already spread to Mumbai and Pune, said Sandeep Kelkar, vice president of Thane branch of Indian Academy of Paediatrics.
Doctors in western suburbs of Mumbai confirmed the disease had spread. It is not limited to any one part of the city. I am receiving five patients daily, said Ambedkar Yeshwant, a paediatrician in Bandra. Jayaprakash Hebbar, a physician in Bandra said the disease seems more severe this time.
| Begins with fever | |
Infection spread by direct contact with virus in mouth, nose secretions and stool.
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