A rise in the number of cases of a viral illness known as hand, foot and mouth disease has the Alabama Department of Public Health hoping to raise awareness among the public and find out how widespread the illness is.

Due to cases of hand, foot and mouth disease — also known as Coxsackie A6 virus — being more numerous and severe than normal in the state of Alabama this winter, ADPH is gathering information and looking to raise awareness among the public.

“They’ve (healthcare providers) gotten information that tells them what to do as far as the reporting of hospitalized case versus non-hospitalized, so that we can get some idea, not just of the severity of it from the hospitalized cases, but also some idea of the spread throughout the state,” said Dr. Mary McIntyre, assistant state health officer with ADPH.

McIntyre said there have been reports of cases from different parts of the state, but not every county.

“We’ve got kind of a distribution that we’ve gotten that’s pretty much statewide, not necessarily in every county, but we’re getting reports from north Alabama and south Alabama, and even in the Montgomery area,” McIntyre said. “We’re really still trying to get some idea of just how widespread it is, but it is in north and south Alabama and in other parts.”