Mumbai: Cases of chickenpox rise with the heat

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Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/Cases-...e1-681780.aspx

Cases of chickenpox rise with the heat
Priya Prabhakaran , Hindustan Times
Mumbai, April 06, 2011


First Published: 01:35 IST(6/4/2011)
Last Updated: 01:36 IST(6/4/2011)

With the rising temperature, city doctors are seeing an increase in the number of chickenpox cases. Worse, patients who have had chickenpox once are returning with a relapse within weeks of getting ?cured?. Traditionally, patients who had chickenpox were known to develop lifetime immunity to the virus. But in the last two months, doctors have witnessed a second cycle of infection of chickenpox among patients.

?A patient developed new chickenpox boils in just two weeks after he was infected with the virus. The reason could be anything from heat, lack of nutrition or poor hygiene,? said Dr Om Shrivastav, unit head at Kasturba Hospital, the city?s sole hospital for communicable diseases. He admitted to seeing similar cases at Jaslok Hospital and Harkishandas Hospital where he is a consultant physician.

Abu Ali Sheikh, 18, was one such case. He was admitted to Kasturba Hospital in March with chickenpox.

?After he was cured, he had to be admitted again for the same illness in a month?s time. It was unheard of and thus we were worried,? said Sheikh?s brother Sohaib, 22...

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Re: Mumbai: Cases of chickenpox rise with the heat

Source: http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/may...a-Hospital.htm

Chicken pox is no longer child's play
By: Priyanka Vora Date: 2011-05-09 Place: Mumbai

Doctors are seeing an increasing number of adults suffering from the disease. They find the rise alarming because of a heightened risk of complications; 80% of chicken pox patients at Kasturba Hospital are adults

While most people have memories of contracting chicken pox as kids, getting a leave from school and waiting while the disease ran its course harmlessly, many adults in the city are finding themselves to be not so lucky.
Doctors have expressed surprise at the disease, which one usually contracts in childhood, manifesting itself in a large number of adults in the city. The figures have swung so wildly that Kasturba Hospital, the city's only hospital for infectious diseases, has seen more cases of adults contracting chicken pox this year than of children getting the disease.

Nearly 80 per cent of the hospital's 120 chicken pox patients are adults. Doctors say there is cause for alarm in this development because while the disease is mild in children and does not affect them too badly, it causes several complications like high fever in adults, which can necessitate hospitalisation.

"We have close to 120 chicken pox patients in the hospital and a majority of them are adults. If a person has suffered from chicken pox in his childhood, the chances of a second attack are minimal. Most of the patients admitted here have got chicken pox for the first time," said Dr Umesh Aigal, medical superintendent, Kasturba hospital. Explaining the reason for this, he said, "Most of the chicken pox patients admitted to our hospital are not locals and have contracted the disease after coming to the city. They may have not been exposed to the virus in their childhood and, thus, may have contracted it after coming to Mumbai." He added that the hospital had seen 80 cases of chicken pox around the same time last year...