India: Spread of tomato flu prompts fresh alarm

spread in India of one New disease In children called Tomato feverRed and painful blisters led the country’s most populous state to issue a circular this Friday after a similar warning by the central government.

“Hand, foot and mouth disease is not uncommon in the South India and (tomato fever) is closely related to it. Currently, clinical analysis is that one variation“, I said EFE Public health expert and former director of the National Health System Resource Center (NHSRC) D. Sundararaman.

The experts speak

An article published last week in the medical journal described the “new virus.” The LancetThe first case was detected in the southern state of Kerala on May 6.

According to the authors, the Tomato fever It mainly affects children under the age of five and at least 82 cases have been detected in Kerala, with an additional 26 cases in the eastern state of Odisha.

Symptoms include “high fever, rash and severe joint pain,” as well as “red, painful blisters all over the body that gradually grow to the size of a tomato,” though the study authors insist it didn’t. dies.

The northern state of Uttar Pradesh issued a circular on Friday recommending that parents instruct their children not to “hug or touch other children with symptoms of fever or rash,” local agency IANS reported.

Alert added to published Government of India This week.

Does not spread easily

According to Sundararaman, the fact that it is a self-limiting disease that “doesn’t spread very quickly” is good news, although the rise in cases raises questions.

“I don’t know that the disease surveillance system is up to the task, although certainly the systems are better in places like Kerala,” he explained.

“But it’s very easy to isolate because it’s so visible, if the public health department is activated, we don’t have it A widespread infectious diseaseSundararaman said.

Officials have pointed out that there is currently no specific treatment for this disease Chikungunya or the Dengue, so the only treatment is to take medicines like paracetamol. (EFE)