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CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · J Lab Physicians 2023; 15(03): 472-473
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1761927
Letter to the Editor

Tomato Flu in the Time of COVID-19: Another Challenge for the Indian Health System

Vibha Mehta 
1   Department of Clinical Microbiology, Amrita School of Medicine, Faridabad, Haryana, India
,
J. S. Rahul
2   Department of Neuroanaesthesia, Amrita School of Medicine, Faridabad, Haryana, India
,
Harsh Vardhan Shukla
3   Department of Head and Neck Onco-surgery, HCG Cancer Centre, Ahmedabad, India
,
Khushboo Pandey
4   Department of Onco-Anaesthesia and Palliative Care, HCG Cancer Centre, Ahmedabad, India
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Abstract

Just as the country has recently dealt with the increase in COVID-19 and monkey pox cases, another dark cloud of “Tomato flu/ Tomato fever” loomed the skies of the nation. As of 24 august, 2022, 100 kids mainly below the age of 5 have been reported showing symptoms of the flu. Another state of Odisha, suspected similar infectious etiology in 36 cases out of which 26 Children were below the age of 10. This endemic viral illness has triggered an alert to the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, along with the entire nation at large. The wrath of this disease is not just restricted to India but crossing borders. Tang, et al reported a case of a 13-month-old female child and her 5-year old brother based in United kingdom with similar etiology. Through this report, we aim to alert the frontline pediatricians, who are most likely to come across and manage such daunting cases with these non-specific clinical features in their routine clinical practice across the globe. Early and extreme preventive and surveillance measures must be undertaken to prevent substantial loss in public and private sector

Keywords

COVID 19 - Health burden - HFMD - India - Tomato flu


Publication History

Article published online:
06 March 2023

© 2023. The Indian Association of Laboratory Physicians. This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

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