The death of a 22-year-old young man who recently returned from UAE was on Monday confirmed to be India’s first monkeypox death, Kerala health minister Veena George said. Samples of the man who died in Kerala on July 30 were sent to NIV and the reports showed he tested positive for the disease, the minister said, adding a team was formed and genomic sequencing are being done at NIV.
The man who had returned to India from high-risk UAE on July 21 was admitted to a hospital in Thrissur on July 27 for severe fatigue and brain fever. He died on July 30. His samples were sent for testing to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. The results came out positive on Monday.
His family members told authorities on the day he died that he was tested for monkeypox in the UAE on July 19, the result of which was positive.
The Health Minister on Sunday confirmed the report for the monkeypox test in which he had tested positive was submitted by his family members on July 30. “His monkeypox test done in a foreign country was positive, but his relatives gave the report to hospital authorities on Saturday,” the health minister had said. The health department will also examine the reasons behind the delay in his hospitalisation after he arrived from the UAE on July 21, she said.
“The patient was young, did not suffer from any other illness or health problems and therefore, the health department was looking into the cause of his death,” she said.
The health minister further said the variant of monkeypox is not as highly virulent or contagious as Covid-19, but it does spread. “Comparatively, the mortality rate of this variant is low. Therefore, we will examine why the 22-year-old man died in this particular case as he had no other illness or health problems,” the minister had said. Since this variant of monkeypox does spread, all necessary measures have to be taken to prevent the same, she added.
According to the WHO, monkeypox is a viral zoonosis, a virus transmitted to humans from animals, with symptoms similar to smallpox although clinically less severe. Monkeypox typically manifests itself with fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes and may lead to a range of medical complications. It is usually a self-limited disease with symptoms lasting for two to four weeks.
Centre’s ‘Guidelines on Management of Monkeypox Disease’ state that human-to-human transmission occurs primarily through large respiratory droplets generally requiring prolonged close contact. The virus can also be transmitted through direct contact with body fluids or lesions, and indirect contact with lesion material such as through contaminated clothing or linen of an infected person. Animal-to-human transmission may occur by bite or scratch of infected animals or through bush meat preparation.
The incubation period is usually from six to 13 days and the case fatality rate of monkeypox has historically ranged up to 11 per cent in the general population and higher among children. In recent times, the case fatality rate has been around three to six per cent.
Symptoms of monkeypox include lesions which usually begin within one to three days from the onset of fever, lasting for around two to four weeks and are often described as painful until the healing phase when they become itchy. A notable predilection for palm and soles is characteristic of monkeypox, the guidelines stated.
A task force on monkeypox has been constituted to closely monitor the emerging situation in the country and decide on response initiatives to tackle the spread, sources told PTI. The decision to constitute the task force was taken at a high-level meeting held on July 26 at the level of the principal secretary to the prime minister to review the ongoing public health preparedness in the country.
India has reported a total of four cases of the disease so far.
(With inputs from PTI)
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