New Delhi Govt: A suspected case of Mpox was detected in India on Monday, but health experts advised not to panic, as the monkeypox virus (MPXV) has minimal pandemic potential.
The government, in a proactive move, informed about a suspected case of Mpox in a young male patient in the country. The patient has been promptly isolated in a designated hospital and is under thorough investigation.
The patient, who recently travelled from a country currently experiencing Mpox transmission, has been isolated in a designated hospital. Importantly, the patient is currently in a stable condition, as confirmed by the ministry.
“There is no need to panic. While fatality remains high, transmission is possible only among close contacts,” Dr. Harshal R Salve, Additional professor, centre for community medicine at AIIMS, New Delhi, told IANS.
“Subliminal infections are all minimal; hence, chances of widespread pandemic with monkeypox is minimal,” he added.
Mpox is a viral disease characterised by fever, rash, and lymphadenopathy—a condition that causes lymph nodes to swell or become abnormally shaped or sized. Salve said it is self-limiting, and patients recover within four weeks.
The suspected case of Mpox in India comes amidst a global outbreak that has spread to about 13 countries in Africa, forcing the WHO to declare it a global health emergency. The outbreak is driven majorly by a more deadly strain—Clade 1b. Outside of Africa, Clade 1b has caused one case in Sweden and Thailand.
Government Confirms Mpox Virus Presence in Isolated Patient, Assures of No Widespread Risk
It is immediately not clear whether the suspected patient in India is linked to the more deadly strain of Mpox. The patient, a young male, recently travelled from a country currently experiencing Mpox transmission and is currently stable.
“With the government’s declaration of the first suspected case of Mpox, everybody is worried, but there is no need to panic. As the infection is being transmitted only through sexual or intimate contact, it will not become a big problem like Covid-19,” Dr. Ishwar Gilada, a noted HIV expert, told IANS.
However, he stressed the need to “educate and train the medical community for managing, diagnosing, and detecting Mpox properly. and to increase the effectiveness of laboratories in number and their workload.”
Gilada, a Consultant in HIV/STDs Unison Medicare and Research Centre, Mumbai, urged to start manufacturing the Mpox vaccine, which may not only help India but also low and middle-income countries.
He also called on to “vaccinate people which are vulnerable to Mpox with smallpox vaccine on priority”.
Salve said that MPXV is spread among humans by respiratory droplets and contact with patient fluids. Hospital surveillance and case isolation remain the main interventions for preventing and controlling the spread of Mpox.
Meanwhile, the Centre on Monday advised the states and union territories to screen, test, and trace contact of all suspect Mpox cases.
The states and UTs were also advised to identify hospital isolation facilities for both suspected and confirmed patients.
Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra, while confirming No new case of Mpox in India in the current outbreak, stressed the need for continued vigilance and alertness.
Last week, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) approved an indigenously developed RT-PCR test for the deadly infectious disease.
The IMDX Monkeypox Detection RT-PCR Assay, developed by Siemens Healthineers, delivers results in just 40 minutes, significantly faster than traditional methods (which take 1-2 hours). This may help reduce the turnaround time for reporting, leading to quicker responses.
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