To­ba­go schools are see­ing an in­crease in cas­es of Hand, Foot and Mouth Dis­ease, ac­cord­ing to the Di­vi­sion of Ed­u­ca­tion, Re­search and Tech­nol­o­gy (DERTech).

The di­vi­sion is work­ing with the Ed­u­ca­tion Dis­trict Health Unit and the Di­vi­sion of Health, Well­ness and So­cial Pro­tec­tion to man­age the out­break and pre­vent fur­ther spread.

The di­vi­sion said that cas­es tend to rise sea­son­al­ly, sim­i­lar to the flu, and the in­crease was ex­pect­ed at this time of year. The is­land’s schools have been in­struct­ed to fol­low es­tab­lished pro­to­cols for in­fec­tious dis­eases, which in­clude strict hy­giene mea­sures, fre­quent hand­wash­ing, and sani­tis­ing high-touch sur­faces.

The di­vi­sion has asked par­ents to mon­i­tor their chil­dren for symp­toms such as fever, mouth sores, and rash­es on the hands and feet, keep­ing them at home if they show signs of ill­ness.

The pro­to­cols al­so ap­ply to oth­er sea­son­al in­fec­tions, in­clud­ing im­peti­go, which has al­so been on the rise in To­ba­go.

Schools have al­ready be­gun to re­ceive guid­ance on en­forc­ing hy­giene prac­tices and main­tain­ing a safe en­vi­ron­ment for stu­dents. The health di­vi­sion will con­tin­ue to mon­i­tor the sit­u­a­tion and pro­vide up­dates as nec­es­sary.