New virus hits children en masse in India
Amid concerns over the surge of a fourth wave of Covid pandemic,
an outbreak of another viral disease in Kerala has sparked serious
concerns for all (
https://bit.ly/3M15hCw).
Called, 'tomato flu', the mysterious virus infection has been
detected among as many as 80 children, all under five years of
age in Kollam, Aryankavu, Anchal and Neduvathur districts.
While the reports of the new viral cases have sent Kerala government
on toes, several other south States like Karnataka and Tamil Nadu
have sounded high alert and tightened border checking protocols
besides putting in other surveillance and containment measures
in place in districts adjoining Kerala.
As per health experts, tomato flu has been found with symptoms like
that of Chikungunya, such as high fever, body ache, joint swelling,
fatigue. But most importantly, the infection has been found to
trigger lot of red coloured rashes and blisters on a child's body
- and hence, gets its name tomato flu. Some other symptoms
of the disease cramps in the stomach, vomiting, diarrhoea,
discolouration of limbs, coughing and runny nose.
As the disease is viral in nature, health experts have warned that
it is contagious and so isolation protocols are a must for infected
individuals in order to prevent spread of infection.
Even though the exact causes behind the disease and its severity
have not been assessed by the Health authorities, the Centre too
has not notified anything regarding the rise in infections.
Health experts have foremostly suggested cleanliness and hygiene
practices, social distancing apart from proper hydration and
supportive medical care to the infected individuals only after
consultation with a medical practitioner and due health tests.
