Over 32 students of Raphael Home, a residential school based in Dehradun being found afflicted with chicken pox since March have led to the closure of the school and the hostel till July.
Things look grimmer as the locality where the school is situated is known as prone to dengue, a dreaded vector- borne disease. While the State health department officials said that the incidence of chicken pox afflicting the students of a school had happened some days back the parents of the students of the institute say that the threat of the disease is still very much alive and the process of the parents taking their children back home is still continuing.
Talking to The Pioneer, one such parents who came from Delhi to pick up their mentally retarded child said that they had been called by the warden to take their child back home with the students getting afflicted with chicken pox. An eminent doctor said while talking to this correspondent that Chickenpox or vericella is a highly infectious disease caused by Varicella-Zoster (V-Z) virus, characterized by vesicular rash that might be accompanied by fever.
A hostel warden Patrus Talus confided while talking to this correspondent that things started on March 21 when two students were found down with chicken pox. “later, the figure kept rising till it reached an alarming 30. The management decided to shut down both the school and the hostel after the doctors advised it to do. The parents were accordingly asked to take their children back home,” he said. Notably, the school is a government-aided one.
However, the district administration and the State Government officials when quizzed said that the menace of chicken pox had happened some time ago while affirming that the situation is under control now. But the parents and others this correspondent talked to have contradicted the official statement while insisting that the menace is still alive.
Talking to The Pioneer, a doctor said that respiratory droplet transmission is what causes the disease. “It being a highly infectious disease, there is a chance of persons coming into contact with the affected getting affected themselves. It is transmitted from person to person through droplet infection with nuclei proving instrumental in the transmission. Most patients are infected by face-to-face (personal) contact. The portal of entry of the virus is the upper respiratory tract. Usually its incubation period spans 14-16 days, but in the extreme cases, the period may be shortened to 10 days. Its onset is sudden with mild or moderate fever, back pain and shivering.”
The chief medical officer (CMO) Dr YS Thapliyal when quizzed by The Pioneer over the matter said that the first such incident following the onset of summer had been reported from sapera basti where 20-25 children had been afflicted with chicken pox. “We sent a team to make the people of the area aware of the disease and their prevention.
later, we learnt about the inmates of a residential school being down with chicken pox. The school is now closed because of the summer vacation.
However, this time being conducive for the virus to grow, the people should keep away from crowded places like cinema and market. And the schools should ideally be closed around this time,” he added.