About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
Your doctor will likely be able to distinguish hand-foot-and-mouth disease from other types of viral infections by evaluating:
- The age of the affected person
- The pattern of signs and symptoms
- The appearance of the rash or sores
A throat swab or stool specimen may be taken and sent to the laboratory to determine which virus caused the illness. However, your doctor probably won't need this type of testing to diagnose hand-foot-and-mouth disease.
- Hand, foot, & mouth disease (HFMD): Fast facts. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/enterovirus/hfhf.htm. Accessed July 12, 2011.
- Ng JJ, et al. Hand-foot-mouth disease. In: Ferri FF. Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2012. Philadelphia, Pa.: Mosby Elsevier; 2011. http://www.mdconsult.com/books/linkTo?type=bookHome&isbn=978-0-323-05611-3&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-323-05611-3..C2009-0-38601-8--TOP&uniq=266352183-2. Accessed July 12, 2011.
- Modlin JF. Clinical manifestations and diagnosis of enterovirus infections. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed July 12, 2011.
- Non-polio enterovirus infections. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/revb/enterovirus/non-polio_entero.htm. Accessed July 13, 2011.
- Belazarian L, et al. Exanthematous viral diseases. In: Wolff K, et al. Fitzpatrick's Dermatology in General Medicine. 7th ed. New York, N.Y.: The McGraw-Hill Companies; 2008. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=2997642. Accessed July 13, 2011.
Find Mayo Clinic on