With the change of season, Chicken Pox has spread its tentacles in Nirsa block of Dhanbad district. It created havoc in Pandra Muslim Tola under Nirsa block, gradually spreading throughout the area. Over dozens of residents including children of the area are in the grip of the disease includes Rizwana Khatoon (7), Sanul Sekh (13), Aafrin Praveen (8), Rukaiyya Khatoon (2), Saheb Sekh (8), Zahira Bibi (45), Salim Khan (28), Nayan Tara (20), Salim Kazi (32), Ishan Kazi (54), Noor Alam (54), Irfan (10), Rahana (6), Mahmood Sekh (25), Kalim Kaxi (40) and others.
A team of Nirsa Health Department rush to the area and took an account of the infected persons. Team member Dr S K Gupta said that Chicken Pox is a viral infection, which spreads very easily during these days.
This disease mainly infects children in the age group of 3 years to 15 years, it is recognised by the red rashes in the central part of the body like abdomen, chest, back, legs and face, he said.
“It is a self-limiting disease that is not harmful if given proper attention, leads to complications due to secondary infections when proper treatment is not followed,” he added.
Chicken Pox requires only a symptomatic treatment which involves antipyretic medicines for fever and antibiotics which would counter possible respiratory infections, informs Dr Gupta.
The symptoms of Chicken Pox include mild fever, itching in eyes, pain in body, cough, running nose, headache, nausea and red spots with fluid secretions. The numbers of spots increase from the third day to the eighth day and then start drying. From the ten-day the disease starts declining, taking about 15 days in all to subside completely, Dr Randhir MBBS, Jharkhand Government.
The infected child should be kept in isolation in a room with fresh air and should not be allowed to go out. His clothes, handkerchief, towel and bed sheet should be changed regularly and washed separately using an antiseptic, he said. “It is beneficial to place neem leaves around the bed,” added Randhir.
During this infection, it is very normal for the child to scratch the spots. Any soothing lotion like calamine lotion or coconut oil can be applied on these spots for further relief, said Dr LK Thakur, a pediatrician at Bokaro. “The infected child should be encouraged to drink plenty of water and fresh juices, fried and chilly foods should be avoided,” he added.
Dr Lalan a Homeopathy practitioner at Bokaro said, unfortunately in some rural areas even today it is believed Chicken Pox as ‘mata chad gayi hai’ and they used to resort it with ‘jhaad-phoonk’. “In such cases, this becomes fatal and leads to secondary infections like broncho-pneumonia and goes untreated,” he added.
“Two or three drops of ‘Variolinum-200’ can be taken twice for two days as preventive measures from Chicken Pox,” he added.
