Hand, foot and mouth disease has already infected 5,500 children this year in Singapore. Hand, foot and mouth disease (HFMD) is not deadly very often, but it causes throat ulcers, fevers, and rash among young children. Rarely, severe cases of HFMD occur and can result in organ failure or even death. Recently scientists have come up with a vaccine that seems to prevent HFMD. It has been tested on adults with great success and the next step will be to test it on children. The vaccination testing was made possible through a cooperative effort between the Singapore National University Health Program and the Duke University Medical School.
Doctors and scientists are unsure why HFMD is so much more common in Asia than it is in America. One suggestion is that the disease just hasn't spread to America yet. They will continue to track the spread of HFMD for the next few years to see if they notice it spreading to other parts of the world. They will continue to do research on the HFMD vaccination and continue to test the vaccination for the next few years. The scientists and doctors think that HFMD is an emerging disease among children and fear that it could one day spread to America. They hope to
have the vaccination available for mass production by 2015 hopefully before HFMD spreads around the world.
It is very interesting to think that a disease could be endemic for a long time, and suddenly turn into a highly contagious epidemic. I think it is very astute of the researchers to note that while a disease may not be a problem now, it could erupt and cause fear and contagion worldwide. This post made me think of how Polio suddenly appeared as an epidemic after being a pretty rare disease that many people did not even know about. Making vaccines for diseases like HFMD will diminish the fear that arises because of the emergence of a new epidemic. It is interesting to think what would have happened if researchers had done this for Polio before it became epidemic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Andrea, that it is interesting when diseases suddenly jump from being endemic to epidemic. This usually has to do with a big change in either society, climate, region, natural disasters, ect. Scientists should be checking these factors to figure out why the disease is so popular is certain areas and with certain age groups. It is also extremely scary to know that there is a disease that could be spread to America, and that could become a huge epidemic. We should raise public awareness about diseases, such as this, that are prevalent in other countries, and that have a possibility of spreading to America. The more precautions we take to avoid this disease spreading, the faster doctors can create a vaccine, and keep less children getting infected.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that this disease could go from endemic to epidemic if it catches on to the population in the right way. But, like Peter said it doesn't seem like that deadly of a disease. But of course, the disease could mutate either by antigenic shift or drift. In this case the disease could transform into something much worse which could possibly pose as a big threat to not only the population of Asia but to the population of the world. In that case we would have a situation on our hands that would be cause for alarm. But, at this point I don't think there is much to worry about at least for North America.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that it's possible in today's modern society for the disease to have never left Asia. The world is so interconnected that at some point or another it probably has travelled elsewhere. But, it's possible that it hasn't caught on to the population there like it has in Asia because the people could have different strengths in their immune systems. Either way more research would be beneficial because the only way to work towards ending a disease is to knowing more about it.
I find this article to be very interesting, even though there has only been a recorded 5,500 cases of this disease America is already starting to produce vaccines. I do agree that this disease sounds like it has the ability to become an epidemic but it seems to be very minor. It is just possible that the disease has a high number of cases in Singapore because some parts there lack modern medicine. I think it would be very unlikely for the disease to come to America and I don't believe we will ever need vaccines for it.
ReplyDeleteI was intrigued by the idea that Americans are working to find medication and vaccines for a disease that is far more common in Asia. This reminded me of "Mountains Beyond Mountains" and the work that Paul Farmer and his team do in Haiti. I have heard of young kids getting Hand Mouth Foot in the United States but I never knew that it could be deadly. I always compared it to strep throat, as something that time, rest and a little medication could take care of. Does that mean that the strain that is in Asia is just a different and stronger strain? Most vaccines have been around for a while such as the chicken pox vaccine, so I feel like people are going to be hesitant towards this vaccine. New vaccines cause lots of debate as we saw with the smallpox debate over innoculation. It will be interesting to see the debate arise around 2015. I agree with Lexie that if this strain is prevelent in Asia now, then it is bound to spread to the Untied States if we do not get the vaccine out quick enough. Like Lexie said our world is too interlocked through business and trade for disease not to spread. However not knowing much about the disease, I still feel it is possible that some people in certain countries already have some sort of immunity and that is why we are not seeing a spread to countries overseas yet.
ReplyDeleteI personally find it fascinating that this isn't prominent in the Caribbean. When I hear about HFMD I think about the people who work in open air markets who go barefoot or wear loose sandals. I'm thinking that perhaps the predominance of that sort of culture may be why it spreads so quickly. I would like to know what actually causes it the disease and where in Singapore it affects. Does it affect predominately rural areas or urban areas? I think that knowing this information would be helpful in prevention and treatment if the disease. It seems to be some sort of flesh eating disorder and changing sanitary habits may affect the disease and it's spread if altered.
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