Shafaqna India: India’s health ministry has reported a suspected mpox case involving a man who recently returned from a country experiencing an outbreak of the virus.
The patient, a young male, is currently isolated in a hospital and is reported to be in stable condition. The ministry assured the public on Sunday that India has implemented “robust measures” to address the situation.
“The case is being managed according to established protocols, and contact tracing is underway to identify potential sources and evaluate the impact within the country,” the ministry stated.
While the specific strain of the mpox virus has not been identified yet, tests are ongoing to confirm the infection. The clade 1b variant of mpox, which has raised global concern due to its easier transmission through close contact, was recently confirmed in Sweden and linked to a rising outbreak in Africa. India has previously recorded 30 cases of the older clade 2 strain from 2022 to March 2024.
For more updates, see the following articles:
1. Mapped: New mpox cases worldwide. Which countries are affected now?
2. ‘We are afraid’: East Africa faces challenges as mpox spreads amid vaccine delays.
3. DR Congo receives its first shipment of mpox vaccines.
4. Mpox and the risks of treating some lives as expendable.
The mpox virus, previously known as monkeypox, was first discovered in monkeys in Denmark in 1958 and in humans in 1970. It is typically mild but can be fatal in rare cases, presenting with flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions.
Last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) renamed monkeypox to mpox, citing concerns over the term’s perceived racial connotations. The WHO recently declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern following the identification of the new variant, though it emphasized that this outbreak is not comparable to COVID-19.
Since the start of the year, over 17,500 mpox cases and 629 deaths have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which has received its first batch of mpox vaccines. The virus has also been detected in Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand.