A 34-year-old male resident of Delhi was isolated at Lok Nayak Hospital as a suspected case of Monkeypox. A confirmation of the diagnosis has been done by the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune on July 24th.
The case is presently recovering at the designated isolation centre at Lok Nayak Hospital. The close contacts of the case have been identified and are under quarantine as per the MoHFW guidelines.
Further public health interventions like identification of the source of infection, enhanced contact tracing, testing sensitisation of private practitioners etc., are being carried out.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has also warned about Monkeypox. WHO said that more cases of Monkeypox might be reported in countries where this infection has not spread. Monkeypox is spreading among people who have come in physical contact.
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Monkeypox is an orthodox virus similar to smallpox but less severe than smallpox. Monkeypox virus belongs to the orthopoxvirus genus of the family Poxviridae. In 1958, two smallpox-like diseases were detected in monkeys, one of them being Monkeypox.
According to Dr Vikrant Shah, Consulting Physician and Infection Specialist at Jain Multispecialty Hospital, Chembur, Monkeypox is a zoonosis disease that spreads mostly from animals to humans in Africa. Its spread from person to person is not so common because it spreads only through contact with the pus or saliva of an infected person.
