After Delhi reported its first case of Monkeypox on Sunday, the central government said that health officials have been mobilised to identify the source of the infection and sensitize labs to detect the virus.
Further, the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) is scheduled to hold a high-level review of the situation at 3 pm.
“Public health interventions like identification of the source of infection, enhanced contact tracing, testing sensitisation of private practitioners, etc are being carried out. A high-level review of the situation has been planned by DGHS at 3 pm today,” said the ministry of health.
The ministry also informed that close contacts of the first Delhi patient have been identified and are under quarantine.
Delhi detected a Monkeypox case in a 31-year-old man with no travel history. He is presently recovering at the designated isolation centre at Lok Nayak Hospital.
This is the fourth case of the viral disease in India and the first case without a travel history.
The first case of the Monkeypox virus was detected in India on 14 July after a UAE traveller returned to Kerala. He has been admitted to Thiruvananthapuram medical college.
The second case was reported in Kerala’s Kannur district on 18 July and the third on 22 July in Kerala’s Malappuram district.
Earlier on Saturday, World Health Organization (WHO) declared the virus a public health emergency of international concern, looking at the expanding Monkeypox outbreak in more than 70 countries.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.”
He also stated that although the risk of Monkeypox’s interference with international traffic remains low for the moment, there is a clear risk of further international spread.
The label of a “public health emergency of international concern” is designed to sound an alarm that a coordinated international response is needed and could unlock funding and global efforts to collaborate on sharing vaccines and treatments.
So far this year, there have been more than 16,000 cases of Monkeypox in more than 60 countries, and five deaths in Africa.
