Detection of about a dozen cases of chicken pox and death of one boy due to the disease in a village of Vikasnagar block of Dehradun has jolted the district health department. Though the health department is not confirming, it is believed that on Wednesday 12 year old Alim, son of Aslam, died due to the disease.
On the orders of the district Magistrate of Dehradun Ravi Nath Raman a team of health department was rushed to the village on Thursday. The team confirmed that ten children of the village are suffering from the highly contagious disease.
Apart from chickenpox, the health team found more than 30 people suffering from scabies and viral fever.
When contacted, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun, Dr S P Agarwal said that another team of health department would visit the village on Saturday. He said that on Thursday medicines were given to all the 10 children found to be suffering from the disease.
Dr Agarwal said that at present the cases with symptoms of the disease are being reported only from the Kunja Grant village and no such case is reported from any other area of district. He said that it was found that the village children usually bath in the small pond which probably helped the virus to spread among them.
He added that the person with symptom of the disease should be given proper medical care and should be kept in a clean, airy place.
Chicken pox is also known as Varicella, is caused by Varicella Zoster virus. The disease causes a characteristic skin rash that forms small red blisters. The other symptoms are fever, feeling of tiredness and headache.