Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease, or HFMD, is a contagious illness caused by different viruses. It is common in infants and children younger than 5 years old, because they do not yet have immunity (protection) to the viruses that cause HFMD. I have found such a case of 4 yrs boy recently who played with several children of 6 to 10 yrs. The children of 6 to 8 yrs ( total 3 cases) developed HFMD after 5 -6 days but 2 boys of 10-11 yrs didn't developed HFMD. All the children have no past history of HFMD.
It may be that the older children (or adults) have more mature immune system which either handles the virus before the infection takes place, or that the immune system limits the virulence so that the infected individual becomes essentially asymptomatic.
The little I know about the HFMD, it can be caused by a group of viruses but not all of the cause the disease. I could hazard and educated guess that once the immune system recognizes these variants of viruses, they may confer partial immunity towards HFMD causing strains.
It is most likely that the boys who did not develop disease were previously exposed and recovered. There can be quite a range in disease severity so they may not have noticed one or two small lesions as opposed to the normal presentation of the disease. They would still be immune though.
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