BEWARE: Doctor warns hand, foot and mouth disease springing up in metro Atlanta

ATLANTA — Doctors say they are starting to see hand, foot and mouth disease spring up across metro Atlanta.

Recently, two major league baseball players got it, and doctors are warning it's not just a kids’ illness -- we're all susceptible and it is avoidable.

“Anything you touch can have the virus on it,” Dr. Hogai Nassery, the director of the Fulton County Board of Health, said. “You can get it from a door knob. You can get it from touching stuff on an airplane.”

Prevention is not difficult but it’s something we need to do and more often. Doctors say people should be washing their hands vigorously.

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“If it’s easier to just use hand sanitizer, then use hand sanitizer instead. We want it to be easy to do the right thing as often as possible,” Nassery said.

Doctors say numbing spray and medication for pain can help, but once the rash of red bumps show up on hands and feet and as sores in the mouth, you really just have to ride it out.

“If you’ve got this, you need to stay home and take care of yourself, but also protect other people by not spreading this everywhere,” Nassery said.

A person with the disease can be contagious for up to two weeks. Doctors say warmer months, like now and into the fall, is when they see a spike, especially with kids back in school and around so many other kids.

Cox Media Group