Why the study?
Hand, foot, and mouth disease predominantly affects young children, is much less common in adults, and often presents with atypical skin lesions in adult patients.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease caused by coxsackievirus A6 can occur in adults with atypical presentations, highlighting the need to consider it in the differential diagnosis of acute maculopapular rashes.
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Atypical adult HFMD merits inclusion in rash differentials; case reports leave open questions on prevalence and testing.
Hand, foot, and mouth disease is a highly contagious disease that predominantly affects children under the age of five. The illness is much less common in adults and often presents with atypical skin lesions. Here we describe the case of a 19-year-old healthy, immunocompetent male patient with atypical clinical presentation, with a macular rash on the scalp, palms, soles, and shins, and with minimal lesions in the oral cavity. The diagnosis of hand, foot, and mouth disease was confirmed by isolation of coxsackievirus A6 from a vesicle smearobtained on the right sole. The skin lesions resolved spontaneously in 1 week. This case emphasizes the underestimated fact that hand, foot, and mouth disease can also occur in adults, in either typical or frequently atypical form, and it highlights the role of coxsackievirus A6. Together with the case presentation, a review of the literature describing the disease in adults is presented.
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Šabović et al. (2019) studied this question.
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