With cases of tomato flu pouring from the States since the last few months, the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday released guidelines on testing, prevention and treatment of Hand, Foot, Mouth Disease, also known as tomato flu saying more than 82 children under 5 in Kollam, Kerala had been found with the infection by late July.
The guideline comes amid the warning by a recent study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal that says that young children are at increased risk of exposure to the disease, and if not controlled and prevented, the transmission might lead to serious consequences by spreading in adults as well. The other flu affected areas of Kerala are Anchal, Aryankavu, and Neduvathur, said the Centre adding that the endemic viral illness triggered an alert to the neighboring states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
Additionally, 26 children (aged 1–9 years) have been reported as having the disease in Odisha by the Regional Medical Research Centre in Bhubaneswar. “To date, apart from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Odisha, no other regions in India have reported the disease in their state/UT by the virus,” said the ministry in the guidelines issued to all the States. The government said that tomato flu may be a variant of the common HFMD that is common in school going children.It has also insisted that the virus is not at all related to SARS-CoV-2, monkeypox, dengue or chikungunya, adding that recent reports have suggested it to be Coxsackie A 17 that belongs to the group of enteroviruses.
“The disease will best be described as a clinical variant of viral hand, foot, and mouth disease, a common infectious disease targeting mostly young children aged 1–10 years and immunocompromised adults, and sometimes exposed immune competent adults,” said the Centre. It added that the disease is a self-limiting illness and no specific drug exists to treat it. In the guidelines, the government said that tomato flu is a viral disease and name “Tomato Flu” comes from main symptom of this disease, the tomato-shaped blisters on several body parts.
Primary symptoms observed in children with tomato flu are similar to those of other viral infections, which include fever, rashes and pain in joints and rashes on skin can also lead to skin irritation.
As with other viral infections, symptoms also include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, dehydration, swelling of joints, body aches, and common influenza-like symptoms. HFMD is characterized by fever, sores in mouth, and a skin rash, as per norms.
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.