Human repercussions of foot and mouth disease and other similar viral diseases.

Foot and mouth disease is a frequent viral zoonosis in livestock that may occasionally also affect humans. Transmission to man usually occurs as a result of the consumption of unprocessed milk. The clinical manifestations include fever, headache, weakness, muscle pain, and the development of vesicles and ulcers throughout the oral mucosa. Vesicular stomatitis is another zoonosis similar to foot and mouth disease that can likewise affect humans with similar clinical manifestations, in which the presence of aphthae is highly suggestive. In turn, hand, foot and mouth disease and herpangina are two exclusively human diseases caused by different enteroviruses, with a special predilection for children under five years of age, and characterized by the presence of vesicles and ulcerations in the oral cavity. The present study provides a brief review of the salient characteristics of foot and mouth disease and of other similar viral diseases with which the differential diagnosis should be established.