35-year-old Nigerian tests positive for monkeypox, second case in Delhi | India News – Times of India
NEW DELHI: Dr V K Paul from Niti Aayog, who spearheaded the policy framework to manage the Covid-19 pandemic, is one of the members of the Centre’s task force on monkeypox. It also has Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan and other senior health officials as members, sources said.
The government’s actions come amid a constant rise in cases of the viral infection which was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organisation recently. In India, officials said, six cases of monkeypox have been confirmed till date — four from Kerala and two from Delhi.
The newest confirmed case is a 35-year-old Nigerian national who is currently being treated at Lok Nayak hospital. The first case of monkeypox in the capital was a 31-year-old man who did not have any travel history either. All four cases reported from Kerala had a history of travel to the UAE.
India’s first death due to monkeypox was reported from Kerala recently. The state health minister said a 22-year-old man, who had returned from UAE recently after testing positive for the infection there, succumbed due to the disease on Saturday.
A senior official in the health ministry said the government is monitoring the situation closely and taking steps in advance to deal with any potential crisis. “We have already issued detailed guidelines to the state on the management of monkeypox. Further, an expression of interest (EoI) has been issued by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) inviting bids from private players to develop testing kits and vaccine candidates against the monkeypox virus. The task force’s role will be to expedite the process,” the official, who did not want to be named, said.
Monkeypox was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But for nearly 50 years after that, few cases of the viral illness were reported from outside Africa, where it is endemic. That’s why the sudden spread of the disease to non-endemic regions including the US, UK, Europe and India, among others, has taken everyone by surprise.
The government’s actions come amid a constant rise in cases of the viral infection which was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organisation recently. In India, officials said, six cases of monkeypox have been confirmed till date — four from Kerala and two from Delhi.
The newest confirmed case is a 35-year-old Nigerian national who is currently being treated at Lok Nayak hospital. The first case of monkeypox in the capital was a 31-year-old man who did not have any travel history either. All four cases reported from Kerala had a history of travel to the UAE.
India’s first death due to monkeypox was reported from Kerala recently. The state health minister said a 22-year-old man, who had returned from UAE recently after testing positive for the infection there, succumbed due to the disease on Saturday.
A senior official in the health ministry said the government is monitoring the situation closely and taking steps in advance to deal with any potential crisis. “We have already issued detailed guidelines to the state on the management of monkeypox. Further, an expression of interest (EoI) has been issued by Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) inviting bids from private players to develop testing kits and vaccine candidates against the monkeypox virus. The task force’s role will be to expedite the process,” the official, who did not want to be named, said.
Monkeypox was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But for nearly 50 years after that, few cases of the viral illness were reported from outside Africa, where it is endemic. That’s why the sudden spread of the disease to non-endemic regions including the US, UK, Europe and India, among others, has taken everyone by surprise.
