Hand, foot and mouth disease cases in Korea surge to record high

A woman walks past the public health guidelines on hand-foot-and-mouth disease at a children's hospital in northern Seoul, Monday. Cases of the highly contagious infection are surging across the nation at an alarming rate recently with numbers reaching the highest level in at least a decade, health officials said. Yonhap

The number of hand-foot-and-mouth disease cases is surging in Korea at an alarming rate recently, reaching the highest level in at least a decade, according to health officials on Monday.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), 78.5 cases per 1,000 outpatients, aged six years old or younger, were reported between July 14 and 20, which is higher than the previous weekly record of 77.6 in 2019.

The highly contagious viral illness, characterized by a combination of symptoms such as fever, sore throat and mouth sores, as well as a rash on the hands and feet, primarily affects young children.

The KDCA said a surge in cases was also observed among those aged between 7 and 18 years old, from close to nil before this summer to 18.2 cases per 1,000 outpatients during the third week of July.

After the outbreak in 2019, the disease mostly disappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic ― only to reappear rapidly in recent months.

“A recent surge appears to have been accelerated by immune systems becoming weakened during the pandemic,” the disease agency said in a statement.

The illness typically begins with a fever, often accompanied by a sore throat. Some children may develop a rash on the soles of their feet and hands, as well as painful, blister-like lesions in the mouth, which can make it difficult to consume food and beverages. In rare cases, it can lead to more severe complications such as viral meningitis.

The most common cause of hand-foot-and-mouth disease is infection from coxsackieviruses, which can spread quickly through close personal contact and respiratory droplets (coughing and sneezing), the KDCA said.

“There are no vaccines against hand-foot-and-mouth disease. Thus, it is critical to maintain personal hygiene and to pay extra attention to the way of taking care of patients,” the KDCA said. “Caregivers of a patient must maintain strict sanitation management by, for example, washing their hands after changing diapers … or using separate daily necessaries.”

The KDCA has also advised the public not to send their children, if infected, to day care centers or schools to prevent an even larger-scale outbreak.

“Particularly, I urge officials at child care facilities to step up efforts to maintain the standard of hygiene for hands, toys and many other areas,” KDCA Commissioner Jee Young-mee said.

As part of its efforts to keep young children healthy more generally, the KDCA also said it would continue to promote the benefits of vaccinations.

In a report released the same day, the organization said vaccination rates among children in Korea are higher than their peers in Australia, Britain and the United States.

According to the report, 92.9 percent of Korean 2- year-olds were confirmed in 2023 to have been following the country’s immunization schedule against 17 designated diseases.

For example, in the case of the DTaP vaccine, 94.8 percent of two-year-old Korean children had received the vaccine shots, compared with their counterparts in Australia (92.3 percent), Britain (93.1 percent) and the United States (81 percent).