This is the first case in India showing symptoms of Monkeypox – a viral zoonotic disease with symptoms similar to smallpox.
A person who recently returned from abroad has been admitted to a hospital in Kerala after he showed symptoms of monkeypox, state Health Minister Veena George said on Thursday. The minister said his samples have been collected and sent to the National Institute of Virology for testing.
This is the first case in India showing symptoms of Monkeypox – a viral zoonotic disease with symptoms similar to smallpox, although will less clinical severity.
Till date, no case of monkeypox has been reported in India. Till July 11, the US had reported nearly 800 cases of the viral disease, whereas the global tally stands at over 8,200 cases across 57 countries.
Monkeypox was first discovered in colonies where monkeys were kept for research and hence the name. The monkeypox virus comes from the same family of viruses as smallpox, belonging to the orthopoxvirus genus in the family poxviridae.
While the rare disease usually occurs in Central and West Africa, for reasons unknown it is behaving in ways never seen before. Since early May, monkeypox cases have been reported in countries that don’t normally see it.
According to the World Health Organisation, amid the ongoing series of outbreaks, this is the first time that chains of transmission are witnessed in Europe without known epidemiological links to West or Central Africa.
Monkeypox has been reported as endemic in several other central and western African countries such as Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, and Sierra Leone.
This has also been reported in certain non-endemic countries like the USA, UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Austria, Canary Islands, Israel and Switzerland.
The US claims it has two vaccines which work against monkeypox. Both are expected to work before a monkeypox exposure, as well as after an exposure before symptoms start. (The fact that the vaccines work post-exposure sets monkeypox apart from diseases like COVID-19).
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