Hand, foot and mouth disease is spread through direct contact with droplets of oropharyngeal secretions or broken fluid from blisters on the hands and feet of the patient.
The disease can also be spread through contact with toys or objects contaminated with secretions or fluid from the blisters on the patient’s hands. In addition, the hands of adults are also mediators of virus transmission from sick children to healthy children if they do not wash their hands after caring for or contacting sick children. In general, this is a contagious infectious disease and so far there is no preventive vaccine and no specific treatment.
Therefore, to prevent hand-foot-and-mouth disease, we need to pay attention to fully and regularly implement measures of personal hygiene, cleaning – disinfecting toys, utensils and children’s living areas. .
Weekly disinfection should be performed periodically on a certain day of the week to gradually establish a new habit. Disinfection includes soaking toys and cleaning floors and cabinets where children live with disinfectant solutions. Some commonly used disinfectants include: chloramin B powder 25%, bleaching water (javel water).
Disinfectant solutions that can be used at home are chloramin B and javel water. For chloramin B powder, mix 1 teaspoon (a long spoon, usually used to drink iced coffee) with 1 liter of water to disinfect every week in case there are no patients at home. If there is a patient in the house, it must be mixed according to the instructions of the medical staff, usually 5 teaspoons mentioned above in 1 liter of water. However, the use of chloramine B powder may not be convenient for us when the smell is quite unpleasant, must be stored carefully (must be tightly closed, in a dark bottle or bag because if chloramine is exposed to light light will lose its effect), in addition, you must remember the recipe …
To overcome the troubles in using chloramine powder, households can buy clothes bleaching solutions (javel water) widely available in the market to use for common household disinfection purposes. family. The above products are marketed for the purpose of bleaching white clothes, but with the nature of sodium hypochlorid solution (a chemical with medically recommended disinfecting properties), the above products can completely Use as household disinfectant. Countries around the world also use similar bleaching solutions to disinfect and disinfect homes. Note: only bleach for clothes can be used to disinfect, do not use bleach for colored clothes because this product does not contain sodium hypochloride. One advantage of javel over chloramine powder is that there are javel water products that have been flavored to remove the unpleasant odor of chlorine, making disinfection more pleasant.
Making javel water is quite simple. With the rate of bleaching instructions printed on the product label can be used for daily cleaning. If used for weekly disinfection purposes, we will double the ratio. For example, to bleach clothes, the manufacturer instructs to mix 2 bottle caps for 1 liter of water, then for disinfection purposes, we mix 4 bottle caps for 1 liter of water.
Toys should be washed before immersing them in an emergency disinfectant solution. After soaking in the disinfectant solution for 30 minutes, you must take it out and wash it with clean water, then dry it before letting your baby play. In mopping floors and surfaces, the following should be noted:
– Wipe first with soap and water to remove dust and organic matter before wiping with disinfectant solution.
– Use 2 buckets, 1 bucket contains disinfectant solution and 1 bucket contains water to flush dirt. Dip the wipes in the disinfectant solution to wipe, when the towel is dry or dirty, it should be rinsed with water when dipping again in the disinfectant solution, keep doing this until the cleaning is complete. Finally wipe with clean water.
To ensure the concentration of disinfectant, you should choose to buy products with well-known brands, manufactured by large factories… In using disinfectants, you should wear gloves while mixing and cleaning. and soak to avoid irritating the skin of the hands and need to avoid getting disinfectant water splashed into the eyes. In case of eye contact with disinfectant, rinse the eyes several times with clean water and seek medical attention if necessary. In storage, should separate the area of disinfectant and cleaning tools, out of the reach of children and not mixed with food and drink.
In short, cleaning and disinfecting surfaces, floors, and children’s toys is very important. This is one of the measures to help children prevent hand-foot-and-mouth disease. We can do this to protect the health of our children.
