India's first monkey pox case found in Kerala, Modi govt rushes in high-level team

THE Narendra Modi government on Thursday (14) rushed a high-level team to the southern state of Kerala after the country's first case of monkey pox was confirmed there.

State health minister Veena George said the man who tested positive for the disease recently returned from the United Arab Emirates. He landed at the state's Thiruvananthapuram airport on July 12 and is "quite stable, with all vitals normal", she said. The central team which was sent to Kerala includes experts from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).

"There is nothing to worry about or to be anxious about. All the steps are being taken and the patient is stable," George told news agency ANI, but did not share further specifics about the patient.

She also said his primary contacts have been identified — his father, mother, a taxi driver, an auto driver, and 11 fellow passengers from adjacent seats. She said hours earlier that "a person who returned from abroad" is admitted to a hospital with symptoms of monkey pox. His samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology for further examination.

Earlier in the day, the Indian government wrote to states to take precautions over the disease. Concerned over cases in Europe and America — since monkey pox is rarely reported outside Africa — the government had in May issued guidelines about isolation and contact-tracing.

One of two strains of monkey pox is more dangerous. While the Congo strain causes death in up to 10 per cent of the infected, the West African strain is milder, with a fatality rate of around one per cent.