Chicken pox during exams gives parents nightmares

Parents readying their children for the annual exams are a harried lot. Several cases of chicken pox have been reported among school children in the past week.

Chicken pox is highly contagious and spreads through direct contact. The germs also spread in the air when someone coughs or sneezes. Even adults in the city haven’t been spared.

Red rashes cropped up on six-year-old Palak Mehta’s body a week ago. “I found that several students in her class had got chicken pox. The doctor has advised at least a fortnight’s rest as her infection is severe,” her mother Sheetal Mehta said.

“Chicken pox is not unusual at this time of the year. The chicken pox virus - varicella zoster — surfaces after winter when temperatures begin to rise,” Dr SN Acharya, a general practitioner from Kurla, said. “I have diagnosed at least six cases in the past week or two. Schools are highly congested with up to 60 children in each class. This allows the virus to spread fast.”

The chicken pox vaccine, at over Rs1,500, is an expensive but highly effective precaution against chicken pox. “It is a single shot given when the child is one year old and it gives lifelong immunity against chicken pox,” Dr PV Vaidyanathan from Chembur said.

With exams round the corner, ten-year-old Urvi Shah’s parents are worried. “Urvi’s school will not allow her to take the exams, which are starting from March 25, till she recovers completely. And the doctor has said it would take more than a week for her to recover,” her father Kamlesh Shah said.