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Chapters

0:00 Introduction
0:29 who is at Risk?
1:05 Symptoms of Tomato Flu
1:26 Treatment of Tomato Flu
2:03 Prevention Of Tomato Flu

Last week, The Lancet reported on the outbreak of a new viral infection spreading among children under five in Kerala, India.
 
Described as rare and non-life-threatening, the report has nonetheless generated widespread media attention due to it causing red and painful blisters throughout the body that can gradually enlarge to the size of a tomato.
 
The infection was detected by EPIWATCH, a system which uses the power of Al and open-source data to capture early epidemic signals globally, in early May 2022.
 
But while the extent of its spread is not yet known, at least 82 cases have been reported by local government hospitals since the infection was first identified, prompting concerns it could soon reach Australia.
 
So what do GPs need to know?
 
According to Professor Vasso Apostolopoulos, Immunology and Translational Group Leader at Victoria University and co-author of The Lancet paper, scientists are still trying to identify exactly what this virus is.
 
‘Its symptoms are similar to dengue fever and Chikungunya virus, which are common in the area, but it doesn’t appear to be them,’ she said.
 
‘It has been called tomato virus because the symptoms include small grapelike blisters that can actually grow as big as a tomato and are red like a tomato. It’s got nothing to do with tomatoes or eating tomatoes.
 
‘It looks like the virus is mild and goes away on its own, but most people who have had this infection are young, and we don’t really know what might happen in an immunocompromised person or if it spreads to elderly people.
 
‘At the moment it is still isolated and doesn’t appear to have spread beyond India.’