Monkeypox symptoms reported in traveller from UAE, says Kerala health minister

 

So far, there are no reported cases of monkeypox virus in India. As of 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.

In a first in India, a person who reached Kerala three days ago from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has developed symptoms of Monkeypox, state health minister Veena George said on Thursday.

Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease with symptoms similar to smallpox, although with less clinical severity.

“It is suspected that one person is infected with Monkeypox. The person under observation reached Kerala from UAE three days back. After he developed symptoms of the disease, his samples were sent to the Virology Institute in Pune. The final results are expected by Thursday evening,” the minister said.

So far, there are no reported cases of monkeypox virus in India. As of 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 1958 in colonies where monkeys were kept for research, hence the name. The monkeypox virus comes from the same family of viruses as smallpox, belonging to the orthopoxvirus genus in the family poxviridae.

According to the World Health Organization, in the present series of outbreaks being reported, 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.

WHO considers declaring monkeypox a global health emergency:

 

As the World Health Organisation convenes its emergency committee Thursday to consider if the spiraling outbreak of monkeypox warrants being declared a global emergency, some experts say WHO’s decision to act only after the disease spilled into the West could entrench the grotesque inequities that arose between rich and poor countries during the coronavirus pandemic.

Declaring monkeypox to be a global emergency would mean the UN health agency considers the outbreak to be an “extraordinary event” and that the disease is at risk of spreading across even more borders. It would also give monkeypox the same distinction as the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing effort to eradicate polio.

Many scientists doubt any such declaration would help to curb the epidemic, since the developed countries recording the most recent cases are already moving quickly to shut it down.

Last week, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the recent monkeypox epidemic identified in more than 40 countries, mostly in Europe, as “unusual and concerning.” Monkeypox has sickened people for decades in central and west Africa, where one version of the disease kills up to 10% of people. In the epidemic beyond Africa so far, no deaths have been reported.