TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Since the outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease at Florida State University on Sept. 12, officials at the school have seen a total of 56 cases of the illness as of Monday.
The university only saw one new case on on Sept. 30, according to Christopher DeLisle, medical director at FSU.
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“I’m very optimistic that we will start trending down now, with all the precautions we’ve taken,” DeLisle told News4Jax Monday.
Those precautions primarily involve informing students about the disease and encouraging them to practice good hygiene to prevent its spread. This is the same tactic that officials at the University of North Florida are using to prevent the spread of the disease at the Jacksonville campus.
News4Jax reported university officials have diagnosed eight cases of hand, foot and mouth disease at UNF as of Friday.
Until this point, DeLisle said, the number of new cases at FSU had been steadily increasing throughout the month.
Additionally, officials at both schools told News4Jax that while the disease is named for blisters that appear on the hands, feet and mouths of those infected, they've mainly been seeing blisters on patients' hands and feet, rather than their mouths.