Hand, foot, and mouth disease primarily affects young children who haven't yet built up immunity to the several viruses known to cause it. HFMD is highly contagious and leads to painful sores and blisters in and around the mouth, hands, and feet—thus the name. There's no cure for this disease, though it typically resolves in about a week. First identified in 1957 in New Zealand, there are more than 200,000 cases of HFMD annually in the US, and they often occur in settings such as daycares and playgrounds.
The disease can spread in several ways, including contact with saliva, mucus, fluid from the blisters and stool, and virus-laden surfaces such as toys or doorknobs. More rarely, people may also become sick after swallowing improperly chlorinated pool water that has tiny bits of virus-laden poop floating around.
Though adults typically have some immunity to HFMD, it can still sicken adults, and the viral disease has been known to spread across college campuses: In 2018, it sickened more than 120 people at Johns Hopkins University alone and also caused outbreaks across six other Eastern colleges. In 2025, for still-unknown reasons, the disease caseload spiked in the mid-Atlantic as compared to other recent years, with larger-than-expected outbreaks across Maryland, Virginia, and New Jersey—though they mostly affected young children.
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The common ailment spreads through respiratory droplets, touching infected secretions like poop, but also by touching virus-laden fomites, which are contaminated objects such as doorknobs or toys.
These viral infections are both caused by enteroviruses, which are a group of single-stranded, non-enveloped RNA viruses. Several different enteroviruses are known to cause this condition, including Coxsackie virus A16, Enterovirus 71, and Coxsackie virus A6.
The highly contagious disease is caused by several viruses and it primarily affects little kids. It causes red spots in and around the mouth, hands, feet, and even the buttocks. They often become painful water-filled blisters that can burst and cause small ulcers. Eating and drinking is uncomfortable for about a week so patients need to be careful not to become dehydrated.
The first clinical report involved eight kids with the characteristic sores in New Zealand, and then in the years that followed there were dozens more cases there and also reports of outbreaks in England and Scotland, among other settings, including the US.
This painful condition is also caused by several viruses in the enterovirus family. The condition typically has early symptoms including a fever and sore throat, in addition to the sores. Herpangina is often mistaken for strep throat, but there's no cure for herpangina and patients typically have symptoms for about a week.
Fever is often the first symptom and then painful sores may develop a day or two later. Coxsackie A16 is currently the most common enterovirus that leads to the disease, though there are several other enteroviruses that can cause it as well.
That's why the virus can be transmitted via fomites—surfaces that have virus on them like doorknobs, kids toys, etc. These viruses are resilient—they are often even resistant to freezing (and are frequently stored at freezing temperatures in lab settings).
In pools with inadequate levels of chlorine, this disease can spread via the poop-to-mouth route, though this isn't one of the most common ways the disease is transmitted. People can become infected by swallowing contaminated pool water after little kids (or their parents) don't do an adequate job removing virus-laden feces from the child before the child enters the water.
This painful, contagious disease most commonly has outbreaks in summer and early fall in the US because the enteroviruses that cause disease can most readily survive and be transmitted in warmer, humid conditions. It can still show up throughout the year, however.
In 2025, certain eastern states including Virginia and West Virginia reported a sizable uptick in their HFMD cases, particularly in their schools and daycare centers, though the reason for the larger outbreaks remains unknown. When adults or teens get the disease, their symptoms are usually mild or even asymptomatic. Still, they may pass the disease between people, too. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)
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