Following the detection of the second monkeypox case in Kerala, the Centre has asked all port and airport officials to step up screening at exit points. Most experts believe that as only close contact is a mode of transmission, the disease can be controlled and has asked people not to panic
Kerala on Monday reported a second case of monkeypox from Kannur district. The 31-year-old man, who is now being treated at Pariyaram Medical College, had returned from Dubai on 13 July and was diagnosed with symptoms of the virus on Monday.
India had reported its first monkeypox case on 14 July from Kerala when a 35-year-old person who returned from UAE showed symptoms.
Following the detection of the two cases, the Centre has asked port and airport officials to ensure strict health screening of all international travellers.
“They were advised to ensure strict health screening of all arriving international travellers which can minimise the risk of importation of monkeypox cases into the country. They were advised and re-oriented in clinical presentation of monkeypox disease as per ministry of health’s ‘Guidelines for Management of Monkeypox Disease’,” the Centre said.
They were also advised to coordinate with other stakeholder agencies like immigration at international ports and airports to streamline the health screening processes.
Is India at a risk of a monkeypox outbreak? Should we be concerned? How exactly does monkeypox spread? We try to answer all these questions and more.
Transmission of monkeypox
Before we tackle the concern of whether India is at risk of seeing a monkeypox outbreak, here’s understanding how the zoonotic virus spreads.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), America’s health protection agency, states that the disease that causes pimple- or blister-like lesions and flu-like symptoms spreads through close contact.
That includes direct physical contact with lesions as well as “respiratory secretions” shared through face-to-face interaction, and touching objects that have been contaminated by monkeypox lesions or fluids. The virus may also pass to a foetus through the placenta.
It is also possible for people to get monkeypox from infected animals, either by being scratched or bitten by the animal or by preparing or eating meat or using products from an infected animal.
Dr John Brooks, the CDC’s chief medical officer of HIV prevention, told CNN that monkeypox is not a sexually transmitted infection in the typical sense, but it can be transmitted during sexual and intimate contact, as well as with personal contact and shared bedding and clothing.
The US health agency also added that it’s not clear whether monkeypox can spread through semen or vaginal fluids, but the virus can’t spread asymptomatically — which means that people who do not have monkeypox symptoms cannot spread the virus to others.
Monkeypox’s spread across the world
The World Health Organization (WHO) in its last update on 17 June stated that since the beginning of this year a total of 2,103 laboratory confirmed cases and one probable case, including one death, have been reported.
The WHO said that worldwide over 60 countries have seen patients infected with the virus so far.
A Reuters tally from 15 July puts the total cases of monkeypox at 11,500. In Europe, Austria had recorded 80 cases whereas Belgium had a total of 224 cases. France and Germany had a total infection count of 912 and 1,859 respectively.
Spain had another 2,447 cases of monkeypox recorded until 12 July.
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The United Kingdom had 1,856 confirmed cases as of 14 July, including 1,778 in England, 46 in Scotland, 12 in Northern Ireland and 20 in Wales.
The United States as of 14 July had recorded 1,469 cases of monkeypox.
European Union health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, reacting to the spread of the disease in the area was quoted as telling Reuters, “I am concerned by the increasing number of monkeypox cases in the EU.”
Should we be concerned?
As alarm bells go off worldwide, medical experts have called for calm, saying that monkeypox is a largely self-limiting disease — which means it will resolve itself on its own, and will leave no long-term harmful effects on a patient’s health.
Virologist Dr Shahid Jameel, who is associated with the University of Oxford and Ashoka University, underlined that as human-to-human transmission of monkeypox requires close contact, it should be fairly easy to limit its spread.
Epidemiologist Dr Naman Shah, too, in a Moneycontrol report said that as the disease is easy to track and trace overall, it should not pose a big challenge as long as contacts can be identified.
However, there are a few health officials urging people to pay more attention to the outbreak.
“This is something we definitely need to take seriously. We don’t know the scope and the potential of it yet, but we have to act like it will have the capability of spreading much more widely than it’s spreading right now,” Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) told CNN last Saturday.
How to protect yourself?
There is no proven treatment for monkeypox; the WHO recommends supportive treatment depending on the symptoms. Those infected are advised to isolate immediately.
There are certain guidelines been issued to protect oneself from the disease. The guidelines state that one can reduce the risk of contracting the virus by limiting close contact with people who have suspected or confirmed monkeypox.
Secondly, people have been advised to clean and disinfect environments that could have been contaminated with the virus from someone who is infectious regularly.
Also, if you think you might have monkeypox, you can act to protect others by seeking medical advice and isolating yourself from others until they have been evaluated and tested.
With inputs from agencies
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