Srinagar, Sept. 4 -- By Dr. Humaira Gilani

By late summer, I can tell the season has turned without looking at a calendar.

Children start filing into clinics with the same itchy rash spreading across their arms and faces, and I know Waav Pait has returned to Kashmiri households.

The first spots look like nothing much, easy to dismiss as a mosquito bite or a heat rash, until the fever climbs and the skin fills with small, fluid-filled blisters that no child can leave alone.

Most families in the valley already know the drill.

A grandmother names it correctly the moment she sees it. Calamine lotion appears from some cupboard where it has sat since the last outbreak. Nails get trimmed short, soft food replaces the usual meal, fluids are ...