Jeff Green | Jul 30, 2014
A number of Central Frontenac area families have been suffering this summer with flu-like symptoms, followed by mouth sores and a rash. The disease they are likely suffering from is Hand Foot and Mouth disease (not to be confused with Hoof and Mouth disease, which only occurs in animals). In a Kingston Frontenac Public Health fact sheet, Hand Foot and Mouth disease is characterized as a “common contagious viral illness that affects mostly children, but adults can get it too.” It is usually contracted in the summer months and nearly all people recover within 7 to 10 days without treatment. It is considered “moderately contagious through direct contact with an infected person”.
Residents have raised concerns that the disease was contracted through the water at some of the local beaches, in particular the Sharbot Lake Beach, but Public Health Unit Officials say that cannot be the case.
“Hand Foot and Mouth Disease is a virus that is only spread through direct human contact, not the water at public beaches,” said Karla Gimby, communications officer with KFL&A Public Health.
Gimby added that the Public Health does not get notified by local primary care physicians or schools about outbreaks of hand, foot and mouth disease, unlike diseases such as influenza, which pose a more serious risk to public health.
The Health Unit does test the water at a number of locations in Frontenac County each summer for bacterial content, including: Arden, Long Lake, Big Clear Lake, Eagle Lake, Crow Lake, Kennebec Lake, and Sharbot Lake in Central Frontenac; Palmerston and Ompah in North Frontenac; Davidsons, Desert Lake and Sydenham Lake.
At this time all of those locations are listed as safe and the beaches are open to the public.
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