| Dr. Jean Pierre Randrianiaivoravelona. |
A disease causes unusual skin rashes, and its symptoms worry infected people. “My arm and forearm are covered in spots filled with fluid. It’s very painful,” said a person suffering from the disease yesterday. This disease is “shingles”, according to doctors’ diagnoses. It’s a viral disease,
“and not a bewitchment or an illness caused by the bite of an animal, as some people think,” specifies Dr. Jean-Pierre Randrianaivoravelona, a general practitioner in Antananarivo. “It is not Mpox, which is not yet present in Madagascar, until now,” underlines a source from the Ministry of Public Health.
Doctors are seeing a large number of people infected with this disease currently. “I received nearly ten cases in a week. There are children, but there are also adults,” says Dr Antoine Ravelojaona, a doctor at a medical practice in Antohomadinika. The origin of this increase in cases of shingles is not known. “Shingles is the reactivation of chickenpox in people already suffering from this very contagious viral infection, whose immunity is very weak,” indicates a doctor responsible for communicable diseases.
Shingles is a disease leading to school exclusion. “Children affected by shingles should not attend school for ten to fourteen days, depending on their state of health,” recommends Dr. Antoine Ravelojaona. It is transmitted “by direct contact with the fluid from vesicular lesions”. Doctors encourage infected people to seek medical attention. “Only health professionals know the treatment,” specify the doctors. In the event of complications, shingles causes pain to persist for several months.
Miangalya Ralitera
