The Union Health ministry on Monday confirmed country’s first case of Mpox clade1b emergency strain virus – for which WHO had sounded alert, in a 38-year-old patient in Kerala, who tested positive last week.
The said case is reported to be South Asia’s first case of the emergency strain, which so far had been reported from six countries in Africa besides two other nations.
The Mpox clade1B was detected in the patient from Malappuram district who had recently returned from the United Arab Emirates. The previous case detected in India was a non-emergency strain.
The condition of Kerala patient is said to be stable. This is said to be the first case of the current strain that led to World Health Organization (WHO) declare Mpox a public health emergency last month for a second time, after the surge in count of cases reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries due to clades Ia and Ib.
The Kerala Health department earlier last week confirmed the Mpox virus detection in a 38-year-old man who had recently returned to India following his visit to the UAE.
The patient is said to have arrived in Kerala a few days ago. Reports revealed, on being unwell, he was first admitted to a private hospital, from where he was shifted to Manjeri Medical College. But after being suspected of being a case of monkeypox, his samples were sent to Kozhikode Medical College for testing.
It may be mentioned that Kerala Health minister Veena George too had confirmed the detection of a Mpox case in the state.
Also, before the Kerala case, a 26-year-old resident of Haryana’s Hisar too had tested positive for the previous West African Clade 2 strain of Mpox earlier last month. In a statement, the Health ministry mentioned the person, who is a young male who recently travelled from a country experiencing ongoing Mpox transmission, and is currently isolated at a designated tertiary care isolation facility. Without disclosing the identity of the infected man, the ministry said the patient remains clinically stable and is without any systemic illness or comorbidities.
