Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease

It began with a sore throat. Then the throat pain got excruciating, to the point where I could barely swallow without wanting to scream. Then I got mouth sores and blisters. Not one or two, but 8 or 10. And then I woke up one morning with a rash all over my chest, stomach and back, and a mild fever. Uhh, this can’t be good, I thought.

These symptoms worsened the day before a scheduled bus trip to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, so we decided to put off the trip and stay in Saigon and Vietnam a few extra days. Then we went to a local health clinic that was staffed by Western doctors. A French doctor examined me and drew some blood, then diagnosed me with “hand, foot and mouth disease.” It sounded scary, but she said it was a common virus in Southeast Asia.

“It’s viral, so there’s nothing I can give you for it. The worst of the symptoms will pass after four or five days,” she said.

“So, this isn’t like the hoof and mouth disease we hear about?”

“No, nothing of the sort. Just rest. You'll be fine.”

We later looked up the disease on the CDC website, and everything we read matched what she told us. And the symptoms did indeed subside after a few more days.

Well, for a while, I at least thought it was a unique part of the traveling experience, that I had contracted a Southeast Asian virus. But then we met Steve, a traveler from Britain, who reported that he’d once been diagnosed with the very same thing at home in the U.K. So, really, all that happened is that I got sick in Vietnam. But with an exotic sounding virus, at least.