Monkeypox: Rajasthan reports 1st suspected case; Kerala registers 5th infection
Rajasthan on Monday reported its first suspected monkeypox case. Dr. Ajit Singh, Superintendent of Rajasthan University of Health Sciences, said a 20-year-old man with monkeypox symptoms has been admitted to a government hospital in Jaipur. His samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. Meanwhile, Kerala has reported its fifth monkeypox infection in a 30-year-old UAE returnee in Malappuram.
- With the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring monkeypox a "global public health emergency," many are wondering if it will be the next epidemic India should worry about.
- The arrival of monkeypox has prompted health authorities in India to install surveillance systems and impose a high alert in several states. The country reported seven confirmed cases of the viral infection so far.
The 20-year-old suspected monkeypox patient was reportedly referred to the Jaipur hospital from Kishangarh on Sunday. He is under observation in a special unit for monkeypox cases. He has rashes and has been running a fever for the past four days. Separately, Kerala Health Minister Veena George confirmed that a 30-year-old UAE returnee—who reached the Kozhikode airport on July 27—is under treatment in Malappuram.
Similarly, tensions rose in Andhra Pradesh's Guntur district on Saturday after a suspected monkeypox case was reported. An eight-year-old kid with monkeypox symptoms was admitted to Government General Hospital (GGH) there. His test results from NIV are awaited. The child is from Odisha and reached Andhra Pradesh over 15 days ago. However, a week after later, the boy developed a fever and rashes.
In Kerala, a 22-year-old man died in Thrissur on Saturday after testing positive for monkeypox in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before traveling to India, Kerala Health Minister George recently stated. She said the state administration would confirm the infection only after receiving swab results from the NIV, Pune. George stated the deceased's relatives only revealed his UAE medical report following his death.
According to a study published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, 98% of affected patients surveyed were homosexual or bisexual males, and 95% of infections were spread through sexual activity. Monkeypox, as per the experts, creates a blistering rash and is spread mostly through intimate physical contact, and the disease has not yet been classified as a sexually transmitted infection (STI).
The WHO has advised against assuming that monkeypox can just harm one group. It emphasized the disease spreads through frequent skin-to-skin contact, as well as droplets or touching infected bedding or towels in a family environment. "Anyone exposed can get monkeypox," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recently stated. He urged countries to "take action" to reduce the risk of transmission to other vulnerable groups.
Ghebreyesus earlier said 78 countries have reported more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox cases to the WHO, which is "a matter of concern." Nearly 75% of these cases occurred in the Americas and 25% in Europe. Since May, there have been five deaths associated with monkeypox, and about 10% of individuals who have the illness require hospitalization to treat it, as per Ghebreyesus.
