6 recommendations of the Ministry of Health to prevent hand, foot and mouth disease

1. Personal hygiene: Wash hands regularly with soap under running water many times a day (for both adults and children), especially before preparing food, before eating, feeding children, before holding children, after using the toilet, after changing diapers and cleaning children.

2. Food hygiene: Children's food must be nutritious; cooked food and boiled water; eating utensils must be washed clean before use (preferably soaked in boiling water); use clean water in daily activities; do not feed children; do not let children eat with their hands, suck their fingers, or suck on toys; do not let children share napkins, handkerchiefs, eating utensils such as cups, bowls, plates, spoons, or unsterilized toys.

3. Clean toys and living areas: Households, kindergartens, and home childcare facilities need to regularly clean surfaces and objects that come into daily contact such as toys, learning tools, doorknobs, stair handrails, tabletops, chairs, and floors with soap or common detergents.

4. Stool management: Use hygienic toilets, children's stools and waste must be collected, treated and disposed of in hygienic toilets.

5. Early detection monitoring: Children must be regularly monitored for health to promptly detect, isolate, and treat cases of illness, avoiding spreading the disease to other children.

6. Isolate and treat promptly when the disease breaks out: Nursery schools, kindergartens, childcare groups and households with children under 6 years old need to proactively monitor the health of children to promptly detect and immediately take them to medical facilities for timely treatment. Sick children must be isolated for at least 10 days from the onset of the disease, and children showing symptoms of the disease must not be allowed to attend class or play with other children.