NEW DELHI, Sept 9: India on Monday reported its first confirmed case of “travel-related” Mpox, (Monkeypox) in a young male who tested positive for a strain from western Africa.
The patient is in stable condition, the government has said, and is without systemic illness or comorbidities, having already been isolated over the weekend on suspicion of carrying the virus. There is no indication of any widespread risk to the public at this time, the government said.
The government explained that testing had confirmed presence of ‘clade 2’ of the virus, and that the particular strain is “similar to 30 cases reported earlier in India, from July 2022 onwards.”
The strain of infection, however, is “not a part of the current public health emergency (declared last month by the World Health Organization), which is regarding ‘clade 1’ of the Mpox 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.
Earlier in the day, the Union Health Ministry issued directives to state governments “review public health preparedness, particularly at health facility level at state and districts by senior officials.” This should include briefing healthcare workers, “especially those working in skin/STD (sexually transmitted disease) clinics, about symptoms, differential diagnoses, and action to be taken following detection of a Mpox case.”
But it is “crucial”, the government also said to guard against “undue panic…” Also, to ensure information about Mpox and its common symptoms were available to the public, the government referred to the latest WHO update, which indicates that a majority of patients are men aged 18 to 44, and present with rash (systemic or genital) followed by fever.
And the most commonly reported mode of transmission, the government said, was sexual contact, followed by person-to-person non-sexual contact. Last month the WHO declared Mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), based on the risk of spread of the current outbreak from beyond Africa, where a surge in cases has been reported from the Democratic Republic of Congo and other nations like Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda. There is also a new strain from the DRC, scientists said.
Five cases have been reported from Pakistan’s Peshawar, according to Geo News. According to the WHO, so far over 120 countries have reported Mpox cases from January 2022 to August 2024. There have been over 100,000 lab-confirmed cases and around 220 deaths.
The WHO says a vaccine can help prevent infection and can also be administered after a person has been in contact with someone who has Mpox. “In these cases, the vaccine should be given less than four days after contact (and) can be given for up to 14 days if the person has no symptoms…”
(Manas Dasgupta)