New Delhi: The government on Monday recommended screening and testing of all suspected Mpox, or monkeypox patients, and isolation of confirmed cases, as well as contact tracing to “prevent and/or minimise risk of any case or death due to Mpox in the country”.
The government has, however, said “it is crucial that any undue panic amongst the masses is prevented”.
States and union territories have been urged to identify hospitals to prep isolation facilities and stand ready to receive suspected and confirmed cases, which will need increased resources.
The Health Ministry directive also recommended dissemination of guidelines on “management of monkeypox disease” and of a detailed surveillance strategy for tracking of suspected cases and contact tracing – similar to exhaustive measures at the height of the Covid pandemic. It also offered a list of “laboratories operationalised to undertake testing, clinical management protocol, infection prevention and control practices, as well as risk communication strategies.
The ministry further called for a “review of 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”.
To ensure information about Mpox and its common symptoms are widely available, the Health Ministry referred to the latest update by the World Health Organization, which indicated that a majority of monkeypox patients are men between the age of 18 and 44, and present with rash (systemic or genital) followed by fever as the most common symptoms.
Mpox was declared a PHEIC, or Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
No confirmed case has been reported from India so far.
On Sunday a man who recently returned from a country where confirmed cases have been reported was isolated and his samples are being tested. His conditions is reported as stable.
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.
