Govt advisory on tomato flu: Isolate children if symptoms show
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The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday issued an advisory on “tomato flu”, which is seen as affecting young children more, and stated that if children develop symptoms, they should be isolated, their utensils, clothing and bedding must be regularly sanitised, they must be kept hydrated, and the blisters caused by the infection must be cleaned with warm water.
Tomato flu, now determined to be a clinical variant of the hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD), results in tomato-shaped red blisters on several parts of the body. More than 82 cases of the self-limiting viral infection have been reported in children below the age of five years, and the infection has so far been reported from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, and Odisha, according to the advisory.
Other than blisters, the infection results in fever, joint pain, diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, and fatigue. The lesions are usually located on the tongue, gums, inside of the cheek, palms and soles.
“In children with these symptoms, molecular and serological tests are done for diagnosis of dengue, chikungunya, zika virus, varicella-zoster virus, and herpes; once these viral infections are ruled out, a diagnosis of tomato flu is considered,” the advisory stated.
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