A man who recently travelled from a country experiencing Mpox transmission has been identified as a suspected case of the disease, the Union health ministry said on Sunday.
The patient has been isolated at a hospital designated to handle cases of Mpox and is stable, the ministry said in a statement.
“Samples from the patient are being tested to confirm the presence of Mpox,” the ministry said. “The case is being managed in line with established protocols, and contact tracing is ongoing to identify potential sources and assess the impact within the country.”
The emergence of this case is consistent with the risk assessment conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control and there is “no cause of any undue concern”, the ministry said.
The government added that India was prepared to deal with such isolated travel-related cases and measures are in place to manage and mitigate potential risks.
The ministry did not provide details of this specific case or in which state it had been detected.
While Mpox is not a new disease, it is a rare infection caused by the monkeypox virus. The illness was previously known as monkeypox.
The infection leads to rash and flu-like symptoms and spreads through wild animals like rodents and primates mainly in parts of Africa, according to the United Kingdom’s National Health Service. It can also be transmitted through close contact with persons who have Mpox and contaminated materials.
While most persons infected by the virus fully recover, some get very ill. Vaccines are available for Mpox.
On August 14, the World Health Organisation declared the Mpox outbreaks in Africa as a global emergency. At that point, cases of the disease had been confirmed among children and adults in more than a dozen countries.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had announced on August 13 that with more than 500 deaths linked to the illness in 2024, the outbreaks were a public health emergency and requested global assistance in stopping the virus from spreading.
Also read:
- Mpox upsurge shows the global perils of ignoring infectious disease outbreak in poorer regions
- Mpox: The smallpox cousin that has set off a global health alarm, as explained by a microbiologist
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