82 Cases of Tomato Flu Have Been Reported

No, this isn’t satire…

A recent outbreak of Tomato flu has left over 82 children in India infected with the contagious virus.

On a positive note, the disease is not life threatening and is similar to dengue fever.

The symptoms include a high fever and red blisters which resemble tomato sauce.

#TomatoFlu symptoms include fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, dehydration, swelling of joints, body aches, and common influenza-like symptomshttps://t.co/q4YfwkVb3s

— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) August 24, 2022

ABC.net had more details to share:

Health experts are monitoring an outbreak of a viral infection detected in children in the southern Indian state of Kerala earlier this year that has now spread to two other regions.

More than 82 children aged under five had been diagnosed with the virus as of July 26, according to the Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal.

Researchers say the illness dubbed ‘tomato flu’ is non-life threatening but a “highly infectious” disease that appears to be a variant of hand foot mouth diseases — but this is yet to be confirmed.

Scientists are still trying to identify exactly what the virus is. Here is what they have said so far.

Its symptoms are similar to dengue fever and chikungunya virus, which are common in the area, but it doesn’t appear to be them, Victoria University’s Vasso Apostolopoulos said.

Professor Apostolopoulos is the university’s immunology and translational group leader and co-authored the Lancet paper.

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“Similarly, it also shares symptoms with hand, foot and mouth disease,” Professor Apostolopoulos said.

A new, extremely contagious virus is reportedly spreading through children in India. Painful, red, tomato-sized blisters are the hallmark of the viral infection referred to as “tomato flu,” according to new research. https://t.co/WVuzzPeBm4

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) August 19, 2022

The Daily Beast dropped these details:

A new, extremely contagious virus is reportedly spreading through children in India. Painful, red, tomato-sized blisters are the hallmark of the viral infection referred to as “tomato flu,” according to new research by The Lancet. Researchers named it after the huge blisters that emerge throughout the body once infected.

The virus is said to be affecting mostly children aged 1 to 5 in several regions. Early symptoms include high fever, fatigue, body aches and severe joint pain, followed by the red blisters that slowly enlarge to the size of the fruit, which are similar to those caused by monkeypox. Symptoms also resemble those from COVID-19, dengue, chikungunya, the flu, and hand, foot and mouth disease, so multiple tests are run to rule out many possibilities before someone is diagnosed with tomato flu.

Although there are no vaccines or anti-viral treatments for the tomato flu, which is not deadly, treatment consists of resting, drinking plenty of fluids and a hot water sponging of the rash.