New Delhi: Even as the world is dealing with COVID pandemic, spike in cases of monkeypox have caused a concern. In India, developments on the disease have been watched closely as the sample of a five-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh’s Ghaziabad was reportedly sent for testing for monkeypox on Saturday. The health department in Ghaziabad sent the samples of the girl for monkeypox after she complained of itching and rashes on her body.
More than 700 monkeypox cases were reported globally, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said. So far, India has not reported any monkeypox case but the government had issued guidelines on the infection. The Centre had urged people to “not panic” and said it was closely monitoring the updates on monkeypox disease.
Monkeypox scare in Ghaziabad: What govt said
The Chief Medical Officer of Ghaziabad said the test for monkeypox was carried out just as a “precautionary measure” as the girl has no other health issues and did not have close contact with anyone who has travelled abroad in the past month.
“Samples of a five-year-old girl have been collected for testing for monkeypox, as a precautionary measure, as she had complaints of itching and rashes on her body. She has no other health issues and neither she nor any of her close contacts travelled abroad in the past month,” CMO Ghaziabad said.
Monkeypox outbreak: Should India worry
There is no confirmation of monkeypox case in India as per the government. After the sample of the minor in Ghaziabad was sent for testing for monkeypox, government health sources said it is “unnecessary panic mongering” and that no cases of the disease have been reported from India so far.
“The sample of a suspected monkeypox case in Ghaziabad has been sent for testing, but it’s unnecessary panic mongering. No monkeypox case has been reported in India so far,” the government sources told ANI.
On Tuesday, the government issued guidelines directing district surveillance units to consider even one such case as an outbreak and initiating a detailed investigation through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme. In the ‘Guidelines on Management of Monkeypox Disease’ issued to states and union territories, the health ministry stressed on surveillance and rapid identification of new cases as the key public health measures for outbreak containment, mandating the need to reduce the risk of human-to-human transmission.
It stated that India needs to be prepared in view of the increasing reports of cases in non-endemic countries even as no case of monkeypox virus has been reported in the country till date.
According to the guidelines, a confirmed case is laboratory confirmed for monkeypox virus by detection of unique sequences of viral DNA either by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or sequencing.
All the clinical specimens should be transported to the apex laboratory of ICMR-NIV (Pune) routed through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) network of the respective district or state.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization’s top monkeypox expert said she doesn’t expect the hundreds of cases reported to date to turn into another pandemic, but acknowledged there are still many unknowns about the disease. “At the moment, we are not concerned about a global pandemic. We are concerned that individuals may acquire this infection through high-risk exposure if they don’t have the information they need to protect themselves,” Dr Lewis said.
Dr Lewis also said it was critical to emphasise that the vast majority of cases being seen in dozens of countries globally are in gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men, so that scientists can further study the issue. She urged those at risk to be careful. “It’s very important to describe this because it appears to be an increase in a mode of transmission that may have been under-recognized in the past,” said Lewis.
