Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Kerala confirmed India’s second Mpox, or monkeypox case. The patient has been isolated, the state has said, and is being treated in accordance with established medical protocols.
Health Minister Veena George said a 38-year-old man from Malappuram had tested positive after returning from the United Arab Emirates. She said the man, on noticing symptoms, acted correctly by isolating himself from his family and was then hospitalised at the state-run Manjeri Medical College.
In a post on Facebook George also urged the public to seek treatment and inform the Health Department if they displayed any of the known symptoms.
Nine days ago India reported its first case – a young man, who had travelled from western Africa – tested positive in Delhi. He too is stable and has been isolated to prevent the virus from spreading.
There is no indication of widespread risk to the public at this time, the government had said, explaining that testing had confirmed the presence of ‘clade 2’ of the virus in the country, and that this particular strain is “similar to 30 cases reported earlier in India, from July 2022 onwards”.
This strain, however, is not part of the public health emergency declared last month by the World Health Organization, the government said. The WHO notification was about ‘clade 1’ of the virus.
A ‘clade’ refers to a biological grouping that refers to all evolutionary descendants of a common ancestor or, in this case, a particular strain of virus.
Last week the Government issued directives to all state and union territories to “review public health preparedness, particularly at health facility level at state and districts by senior officials”.
