Nineteen schoolchildren have contracted the hand, foot and mouth disease, a common viral illness, since the beginning of the year.

The disease has nothing to do with the infamous foot and mouth disease, which affects cattle, sheep and pigs.

Only the pupils who catch the virus need to stay away from school.

A Health Ministry spokesman said that the Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate had received reports of 19 cases since the beginning of January and these were spread throughout the Maltese islands.

He said that when a case was identified, the affected student would have to stay home for about a week but there was no need to send the other children home.

The directorate also distributes information on the disease to parents of children in the same class. Most common in children aged 10 and younger, the disease is a viral infection that does not usually pose a serious threat to health.

It is not fatal and does not usually have long-lasting effects.

Symptoms, which are usually over within a week, include lack of appetite, coughing, a moderately high temperature of about 38˚C or 39˚C, a non-itchy red rash on the hands and the feet, which could develop into painful blisters, and painful mouth ulcers.

The disease is highly contagious and the infection can be spread through coughing and sneezing, items that children are likely to put in their mouths, such as toys and pencils, not washing hands properly and contaminating surfaces or food and contact with the fluids from an infected person’s blisters or saliva.