India reported its third case of monkeypox on Friday when a 35-year-old man, who returned to Malappuram from UAE on July 6, was found to be infected. The Kerala health minister said that he was admitted with fever at Manjerry Medical College Hospital on July 3 and from July 15 he began showing symptoms. “His family and close contacts are under observation,” health minister Veena George said.
George’s office added that with this, three people have been confirmed with monkeypox in the state. Their health condition remains “satisfactory”. The second case of monkeypox was reported from Kannur district of Kerala on July 18 in which there was a history of contact with a case of disease in UAE. On July 14, a man from the state’s Kollam district, who also returned from the UAE, had tested positive for the infection.
The Union health ministry on Monday ordered strict screening of all international passengers arriving at airports and ports to minimise the threat of importation of monkeypox, after the country reported its second case of the virus infection.
Taking note of the cases, the Union health ministry held a meeting to review safety measures and advised states to ensure strict screening to “minimise risk of importation of monkeypox disease,” the ministry said in a statement.
The meeting was attended by airport and port health officers, and regional directors from regional offices of the ministry.
“They were advised and re-oriented in the clinical presentation of monkeypox disease as per MoHFW’s ‘Guidelines for Management of Monkeypox Disease’. They were also advised to coordinate with other stakeholder agencies like Immigration at international ports and airports to streamline health screening processes besides ensuring suitable linkages with hospital facilities earmarked to each port of entry for timely referral and isolation,” the statement read.
Kerala, meanwhile, was put on high alert following the detection of a second monkeypox case. Neighbouring Karnataka too has decided to speed up surveillance activities and keep a strong vigil in the state.
It has instructed all the districts in the State to ensure effective preparedness and take required action as per the Centre’s guidelines and Technical Advisory Committee recommendations regarding monkeypox.
District Health Officers (DHOs)/ District Surveillance Officers (DSO) have been instructed to ensure that the health screening teams at Points of Entries (PoEs) into the State (airports or sea ports), disease surveillance teams and doctors working in hospitals are to be re-oriented on the common signs and symptoms, diagnosis, case definitions etc of suspected, probable, confirmed monkeypox cases and contacts.
They should also be trained on contact tracing and other surveillance activities that need to be undertaken following detection of a probable Monkeypox case like testing and other associated IPC (Infection Prevention and Control) protocols and clinical management, the circular said.
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