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 day cares 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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