Monkeypox Spreads To More Nations: How India Plans To Safeguard People
Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya has directed the National Centre for Disease Control and the ICMR to keep a close watch on the Monkeypox outbreak that is being reported from several countries across the world.
The Union health ministry has reportedly directed airport and port health officers to be vigilant.
Sick passengers with travel history to be isolated?
"They have been instructed that any sick passenger with a travel history to Monkeypox-affected countries be isolated and samples sent to the BSL4 facility of the National Institute of Virology in Pune for an investigation," an official source told PTI
"The Union Health Minister on Thursday directed the National Centre for Disease Control and the ICMR to keep a close watch and monitor the situation in India," the source added.
Monkeypox symptoms?
In humans, the symptoms of Monkeypox are similar to but milder than those of smallpox.
According to the WHO, Monkeypox typically manifests in humans with fever, rashes and swollen lymph nodes and may lead to a range of medical complications.
Monkeypox is usually a self-limited disease with symptoms lasting from two to four weeks.
It can also take a severe form, with the WHO saying the case fatality ratio has been around 3-6 per cent in recent times.
Monkeypox transmission?
Monkeypox virus is transmitted from one person to another by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding.
Transmission of the disease can also occur via the placenta from mother to fetus or close contact during and after birth, the world health body says.
While close physical contact is a well-known risk factor for transmission, it is unclear at this time if monkeypox can be transmitted specifically through sexual transmission routes, according to the WHO.
So far cases of Monkeypox have been reported from the UK, the USA, Portugal, Spain, and some other European countries.
On Saturday Israel also confirmed its first case of Monkeypox on a man returning from western Europe.
Monkeypox in Europe is confusing experts?
While Monkeypox on humans is not new, the current outbreak in Europe and other developed countries has left many puzzled.
In the past Monkeypox, outbreaks have mostly been reported in Central and West African countries.
None of the patients in Europe or the US have recent travel history to the region.
“I’m stunned by this,” said Oyewale Tomori, a virologist who formerly headed the Nigerian Academy of Science and who sits on several World Health Organization (WHO) advisory boards.
“Every day I wake up and there are more countries infected,” Tomori said.
“This is not the kind of spread we’ve seen in West Africa, so there may be something new happening in the West,” he said.
(With agency inputs)
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