(Bloomberg) -- India's health ministry has issued testing and prevention guidelines to states following a surge of a new influenza virus variant, commonly known as tomato flu, with more than 100 infections reported among children over the last few months.
Tomato flu gets its name from the often tomato-shaped blisters that appear across the patient's body. It most commonly affects young children and will typically see flare-ups in nursery schools and daycares. Apart from the blisters, the highly infectious viral illness can cause fever, fatigue and body aches.
More than 82 children below the age of five have been sickened by the illness in southern India, especially in Kerala, the federal Health Ministry said in a statement this week. Another 26 children have been reported sick in eastern Odisha state.
The disease is a variant of the so-called hand-foot-mouth disease that is common in school-going children, the ministry said, adding that it's not related to Covid-19, monkeypox, dengue and chikungunya. The health ministry recommends isolation for 5-7 days from the start of symptoms, to prevent the spread of infection to other children or adults.
The Indian government advisory follows a warning in The Lancet health journal.
The viral infection “is considered non-life-threatening; however, because of the dreadful experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, the vigilant management is desirable to prevent further outbreaks,” a study in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal said earlier this month. Tomato flu is a self-limiting illness and no specific drug exists to treat it, The Lancet said.
India suffered an especially brutal wave of Covid-19 infections last summer, overwhelming its fragile public health care system.
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