Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Just a little bit of history repeating...

... as Dame Shirley might have it. Once again the denizens of Borsetshire's nurseries and play schemes are marked for death... or at least a "nasty" rash. Well I say nasty, but in truth most of them shrug it off with all the applomb of a not-very-ill toddler. Largely because they're not very ill.

"Hold up Dr J" I hear you cry, "just what the hell are you talking about?"

In truth I almost fear to utter it's name, for like the soon to be very topical once again Dark-Lord-Voldemort, it is a name of dread import, not to spoken lightly. It is.....

"Oh do get on with it you fool!"

Well alright, but don't say I didn't warn you. It's Hand-Foot-and-Mouth time again. Since last we spoke about this dread affliction the guidance issued by UK health authority the National Electronic Librray for Health has become even more reassuring. It has been said that HFMD (there, now it's even got a proper acronym and everything) might be implicated in early miscarriage if contracted when pregnant, but the latest NELH article makes no mention of this, because the risk is vanishingly small. And yet, once a tot gets the trademark red spotty hands and feet and is noted to have the same at any pre-school gathering, out come the black bordered plague notifications to be distributed to every parent of every tiny potential vector in the place.

The upshot is a week or two of exclusions of kids from their child-care, and a glut of tinies, spotted or not, through the duty surgery for scrutiny to see if they have "The Black Spot".

All I can say is heaven help the Pugh twins, and little Jack Silver.

3 comments:

Nostrumdammit said...

Dare I say "Gentian Violet"!
Marvellous stuff. Sorted everything out. I fondly remember a serious outbreak of impetigo in the village where I endured my childhood. The local sawbones decided the best thing would be to fill the public sheepdip with the stuff and run the entire roll of the primary school through it.
My how we laughed at each other.

Anonymous said...

I swear that as soon as you mention 'Hand Foot and Mouth' the parent stops listening and has visions of livestock only in their heads!

Doctor Jest said...

nostrum'-- hee hee, I just love the mental picture of a little gaggle of violaceous tinies newly dipped. You must have looked like a badly tuned colour telly when seen en masse. Of course such behaviour by medics would never be permitted nowadays. We'd end up on some offenders register for sure... ;-)

sooz-- indeed. That was much worse three or four years back. I'm sure they had visions of the "Child Catcher" coming round to take their little darlings away for culling.