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Deadly outbreak of chickenpox at district Faisalabad, Pakistan: possible causes, and preventive way forward

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Abstract

This article details our recommendations for the deadly outbreak of chickenpox to consider the additional referral of the absence of a monitoring system of prevention and control along with poor vaccination system for children in low-resource settings. The recent spread of chickenpox outbreak in Pakistan has claimed dozens of lives. The deaths in this current outbreak in quick successions are beyond understanding. Re-emergence of chickenpox in the area has raised many questions. Keeping in view the spread of chickenpox mainly in Faisalabad and its international reputation in trading, chickenpox breakout needs international attention to control its spread. It should be taken as an eye opener for the Government of Pakistan and government should develop and implement Centralized Infectious Disease Reporting Information Management System that will help to narrow down the pathogens as far as the epidemics are concerned and also for early preventive and countermeasure response.

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Acknowledgements

We thank our colleagues who helped and encouraged us in preparing this manuscript.

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MZU conceived & execute the study. SZ, KMA, UAA, and MI helped in collecting data, its analysis & interpretation. SA & MSI wrote, streamlined and proofread the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Muhammad Zubair Yousaf.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Yousaf, M.Z., Zia, S., Anjum, K.M. et al. Deadly outbreak of chickenpox at district Faisalabad, Pakistan: possible causes, and preventive way forward. Mol Biol Rep 45, 2941–2943 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-018-4347-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-018-4347-9

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