Re: At Least 17 People Die of Illness in Bangladesh - reported as Chickenpox, Measles, Diarrhea, and "Small Pox"
Re: At Least 17 People Die of Illness in Bangladesh - reported as Chickenpox, Measles, Diarrhea, and "Small Pox"
This is from Dhaka, not Bandarban, but indicates an overall rise in chickenpox.
Perhaps the chickenpox outbreak is not the cause of the fatalities in Bandarban, and is just background noise?
http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/metro/17055.html
Number of viral patients on the rise in city
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Sajia Afrin
The number patients with seasonal viral problems including fever, influenza and chicken pox increased in the city hospitals and private clinics, said physicians.
‘We have received more virus infected patients including fever and chicken pox in our hospitals,’ M Shahidullah, pro-vice-chancellor and professor of paediatric neonatology at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told New Age on Friday.
He said people, specially the children, get infected with viral diseases usually in spring and summer.
‘The number of infection with chicken pox has been increasing since one month and a half and this trend is continuing,’ Shahidullah said.
Mohammad Mahfuzur Rahman, medical officer of paediatrics department at Dhaka National Medical Institute Hospital, said that they were also receiving an increased number of diarrhoeal and influenza patients.
‘The critical patients need to be admitted to the hospitals. We found the patients with sever respiratory problem, pneumonia, bronchitis and diarrhoea,’ he added.
Shahidullah said that generally no antibiotic was needed for treating chicken pox or viral fever. ‘If the fever patients have no infection in the throat, he or she does not need any antibiotic. Only paracetamol is needed for treating these patients and the fever will come down after three to four days.’
He said some times physicians prescribe antibiotics for the viral patients, which is unnecessary.
The chicken pox patients need antibiotic only if a patient also gets bacterial infection along with the viral infection. In medical term it is called ‘super added infection’, he said.
The experts said chicken pox was mainly self-remitting, but infection could make chicken pox complicated.
Shahidullah said the treatment of chicken pox was mainly symptomatic, that is, if the patient had fever, he or she would need fever treatment but if the patient had itching, antihistamine would be needed.
Health experts said if pregnant women contact chicken pox four days before delivery, it increases the risk of foetal death.
People usually have only one attack of chicken pox in their lifetime, they said. But the chicken pox virus can remain dormant to cause various skin eruptions, called shingles, they said.
Chicken pox being infectious, they suggested that the patients should be kept in isolation as far as possible.
School-going children, with chicken pox, should stay away from school.
The patient can take normal food, but no beef, prawn, aubergine or other allergic items in meals, Shahidullah said.
More fluid should be given to the fever and chicken pox patients, he added.
Doctors advised to keep patients in isolation and cool places. They advised bathing with water boiled with neem leaves, only after cooling it.
The use of soaps is strictly prohibited.
Until healing, which takes five to seven days, the doctors asked the patients to stay at home.
They advised the chicken pox patients to consult doctors, without wasting time, if they complain of severe chest pain, breathing problem, blood in cough, sudden and severe headaches and severe vomiting tendencies.
