A Patinformatics perspective of tomato flu and coxsackie viruses

Tomato flu or tomato fever has been reported to be a viral disease by 'The Lancet Respiratory Medicine' journal, detailing about the first instance of this unexplained sickness which occurred on 6 May 2022. This has spread to few regions of India and viral sequencing in 2022 showed its homology with Coxsackie A16 virus. Tomato flu seemed to be a manifestation of Hand-foot-and-mouth-disease (HFMD) caused by Coxsackie viruses. Patent documents are rich source of technological information in a particular area and patents related to diseases are an important area which when extensively explored may give valid scientific clues. Thus, in the present study, we explored the patent landscape of coxsackie viruses, the causal agent of the tomato flu outbreak, to have far sighted effects in future.