sick
Thursday, February 19, 2009 x 6:49 PM
my little brother is sick!!! it started with a fever and headaches. he came home early from school around 2 days ago, but still seemed quite healthy. he still watched tv and practised his yoyo tricks as usual.
then he started looking sick, staying in the bedroom, resting for long hours. i didn't really ask what was wrong with him, i thought it was just a normal fever. it'd probably go away fast.
today i woke up to the sound of coughing. on and on. it rarely stopped. my mother's friend came and she told me he had "hand foot and mouth disease". i was like.... wtf is that..... does that even exist???
apparently it does. according to wikipedia:
Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is a human syndrome caused by intestinal viruses of the Picornaviridae family. The most common strains causing HFMD are Coxsackie A virus and Enterovirus 71 (EV71). HFMD usually affects infants and children, and is quite common. It is moderately contagious and is spread through direct contact with the mucus, saliva, or feces of an infected person. It typically occurs in small epidemics in nursery schools or kindergartens, usually during the summer and autumn months. The usual incubation period is 3-7 days.
there are also reported outbreaks where quite a few people died o.o
the symptoms stated:
Early symptoms are likely to be fever often followed by a sore throat. Loss of appetite and general malaise may also occur. Between one and two days after the onset of fever, painful sores (lesions) may appear in the mouth and/or throat. A rash may become evident on the hands, feet, and occasionally the buttocks (but generally, the rash on the buttocks will be caused from the diarrhea.) Not all symptoms will be present in all cases.
and sure enough, when i went to my mum's bedroom to check on him, his lips and gums were extremely red. dark red. he kept wailing, saying that he felt tired, and when i told him to take a nap, he'd say he won't be able to sleep at night if he did.
according to my mum's friend, he's only allowed to drink cold drinks. and if rashes appear on the hands or feet, that's a sign saying it's gotten worse.
it seems like the virus is currently spreading. around 3 of my little brother's friends also caught it. guess we should be careful about sharing our drinks and food.
ps: to my dearest vina, good luck in melbourne! i'll visit gucci sometimes =p
~suze
Labels: hand foot and mouth disease, sick
