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Small pox scare in UP

The Uttar Pradesh public health and family welfare department has investigated the deaths of six children in Chakarnagar block of Etawah district and said it was a case of chicken pox.

The department Director-General Bacchi Lal said yesterday that only one death has been confirmed after an inquiry and that there were a few stray cases of measles. He said the death occurred three days ago and the investigation was conducted on Monday.

Meanwhile, the union health ministry in New Delhi said they had cross-checked the facts of the case with the Uttar Pradesh government and found that the children were not affected by small pox. Reports of the deaths has set off alarm bells ringing in the World Health Organisation too.

A WHO spokeswoman in New Delhi said that according to their statistics based on research, the fatal disease had been eradicated years ago.

According to a report from Etawah yesterday, six children have died so far. Over 80 children had been affected by the disease. The report quoting the chief medical officer's office said the children were aged between three and eight. A team of doctors has been sent to the village.

One of the doctors said that if not properly treated, even chicken pox could be fatal, and because of inadequate medicare facilities in remote areas this was a real possibility. She added that fever associated with chicken pox could develop into pneumonia, another common life-taking disease of rural regions.

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