Hand foot and mouth disease - apparently nothing to worry abuot

My friends child goes to p1 now and his school has had an outbreak of hand, foot and mouth disease. this is a viral disease that causes the child to feel unwell and get blisters all ovther their..funnily enough...hands feet and mouth/throat.

Now although this disease is very painful, very infectious, can be deadly to childrean with weaker hearts and brains and can cause DEATH in rare cases, the school didn't even bother to tell the parents about it!

Also i'm a little shocked at some parents views on it, saying it's not serious at all why the big fuss just let them get on with it. Well, i'm not a parent but i wouldn't want to be bringing a viral infection that causes blisters of the hands feet and mouth/throat. Imagine a little baby got it or an elderly lady? It can kill!!

Am i completely overreacting?

Normally here we just get a note home from the school nurse saying they may have been exposed. In an outbreak a few years back, friends of our kids got it but 24hrs of antibiotics took care of it. I would say from a liability standpoint it is strange, but probably not any worse than being exposed to an outbreak of bird flu or other like viruses. Normally kids would be ok (with exception of ones with medical issues already).

Janey, hand foot and mouth isnt like foot and mouth..

Yeah maybe overreacting but this school didnt even send a note home! My friend has a baby at home and her son could have infected him and hes too young to know if he feels unwell so if she didnt know about this infection she would have been at her wits end!

I do think it is more dangerous for the babies. Good thing they didn't get it!