KARACHI, May 2: The cases of chicken pox are on the increase, according to two professors of paediatrics. The treatment of the disease is simple and the doctors should normally not prescribe injectables or antibiotics.

They told Dawn on Sunday that the physicians should treat the patients symptomatically. "This only means that if the patient is suffering from fever, some medication should be advised to lessen the fever," said the head of Civil Hospital Karachi's paediatric department, Prof D.S. Akram.

"And if the patient complains of itching in his or her carbuncles, the physician should prescribe a medicine which may be applied to the affected areas." Similar views were expressed by Prof Zeenat Issani, the director of National Institute of Child Health.

The professor explained that antibiotics were required only when there was some complication involved. "If for instance, the brain is involved in which case puss may start oozing from the patient's ears.

"Similarly, antibiotics are indicated in cases where the person is suffering from pneumonia." Both the professors said the viral infection was largely self-limiting, that is it goes away after 10 to 12 days almost always on its own.

Prof Akram and Prof Issani maintained that chicken pox vaccines were now available in Pakistan, but were too costly. One shot of the vaccine may cost something like Rs1,500.

"The people belonging to the lower and middle classes cannot afford to get their children vaccinated," said Prof Akram. "And at the moment the government too cannot afford to include this vaccine in its regime of antibodies for the Expanded Programme on Immunization."

Prof Issani and Prof Akram both were of the opinion that chicken pox could have disastrous consequences if the patient was only one year old or less." That's why the affording parents should get their offspring vaccinated.