Doctors have sounded an alarm over the “emergence of new non-life-threatening” virus called tomato flu among the children below five years of age. In the recent Lancet Respiratory Journal, published on August 17, the doctors said that the flu was first identified in the Kollam district of Kerala on May 6, 2022, and as of July 26, “more than 82 children younger than 5 years with the infection have reported by the local government hospitals.
It further said that this endemic viral illness triggered an alert to the neighbouring States of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Additionally 26 children (aged 1–9 years) have been reported as having the disease in Odisha by the Regional Medical Research Centre in Bhubaneswar.
