Nasty contagious disease targets parents and their children in Central Texas, USA |

Central Texas parents and their children are battling a nasty, contagious disease that doctors haven’t seen in years. The virus is called hand, foot and mouth disease. It usually affects very young children but adults can get it too. Multiple North Austin and Williamson County parents say they’ve come down with it lately. “It burns, hurts, it itched … everything. It was absolutely miserable,” recalls Steve Acord, a KEYE TV employee who caught the virus from his 11-month-old daughter. Acord is still recovering, but he’s no longer contagious. When his daughter came down with the virus, he noticed it didn’t really bring her down at all. “She was still walking around saying, ‘happy,’ all of the time,” Acord explains. Acord was anything but happy when the illness hit him. More than a week later, he still has the remnants of blisters on his hands. Acord says he had a fever, hundreds of blisters on his head, face, hands and feet as well as sores in his mouth. “You wake up and there’d be more on your hands. Then you wake up the next day and it’d be on your head and inside your ears like it was for me,” he recalls. Dr. Richard Kelley at Austin Emergency Center hadn’t seen a case of the disease in years. However, recently, he’s treated multiple adults who got it from their kids. “Kids tend to put things in their mouths — they have a little less discretion — and are basically transferring saliva from each other,” Dr. Kelley explains. He says the illness starts when feces makes it to the mouth. Once someone has it, it’s very contagious. In order to avoid hand, foot and mouth Disease, hand washing is key. “Especially after going to the restroom, obviously. Make sure [kids] are washing their hands,” Dr. Kelley suggests. “I’ve never felt such pain, honestly,” adds Acord. If you come down with the disease it can last 7-10 days. There’s really not much you can do to treat it other than take some medication for the pain and make sure you stay hydrated. Dr. Kelley says hand, foot and mouth Disease doesn’t typically lead to any permanent or serious health problems.

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