Efforts are on to trace secondary and tertiary contacts of the index patient who was diagnosed with Monkeypox in Kerala on Thursday.
After India reported its first case of Monkeypox, the southern states were put on alert to tackle a possible outbreak. (Creative Commons)
Intensifying its efforts to trace the secondary contacts of all those who have been in the proximity of India’s first patient diagnosed with Monkeypox, Kerala has ordered high vigil in the districts of Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, and Kottayam.
Health Minister Veena George told reporters that 35 passengers who sat close to the monkeypox-infected person on the Sharjah-Thiruvananthapuram Indigo flight belonged to these districts.
“Efforts are on to trace the whereabouts of these passengers, and they will be contacted twice a day for 21 days to know if they are experiencing any health complications. Their close relatives will also be under observation,” she said.
The WHO has so far this year confirmed a total of 3,413 laboratory-confirmed cases of Monkeypox and one death due to the disease in 50 countries.
An awareness campaign will be initiated in the Kollam district, to which the patient belongs.
Meanwhile,16 people who came in close contact with the patient were brought to isolation wards.
However, the auto driver who took him from his Kollam residence to a local private hospital and the taxi driver who took him to the Paripalli medical college in Kollam are still untraced.
Efforts are on to ascertain their whereabouts.
Meanwhile, the route trace map of the patient — released on the morning of Friday, 15 July, by the Kollam district administration — courted controversy because of factual errors.
It said the patient was admitted to the Paripalli Medical College. But the Health Department later clarified that he was not admitted to that hospital, despite having been taken there.
“Doctors there suspected that the symptoms were of Monkeypox, and told him to opt for the Thiruvananthapuram medical college hospital,” the department officials clarified.
After India reported its first case of Monkeypox, the southern states were put on alert to tackle a possible outbreak.
Most of the states decided to go with the guidelines issued by the Central government, and have not issued any guidelines of their own.
“We have not issued any specific guidelines from the state. We got the instructions from the Central government on Thursday and we are following them here in the state,” a Health Department official from Andhra Pradesh told South First.
“We might come up with new guidelines in specific cases after review. However, till now, we have not announced any guidelines,” the official added.
Meanwhile, the Telangana Health Department has started to strengthen its preparedness in case of an outbreak of Monkeypox.
“As of now, we have not released any guidelines. We are going to follow the guidelines that the Centre has given,” Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivasa Rao told South First.
Taking a cue from the guidelines from the Central government, Telangana Health Department officials are going to conduct an orientation workshop for all the key stakeholders — including health-screening teams at Points of Entry (PoEs), disease surveillance teams, and even doctors working in hospitals — about common signs and symptoms of Monkeypox, case definitions for suspected, probable, or confirmed cases, contacts and contact-tracing, and other surveillance activities.
The health department is also going to identify specific hospitals to be the nodal centre for treatment and isolation, a role the Gandhi Hospital in Hyderabad played during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Karnataka, special instructions have been given to District Health Officers from Mangaluru and Mysuru — the districts that border Kerala — to watch out for Monkeypox symptoms in incoming travellers.
Meanwhile, checks for anyone with a high fever or lesions on the skin are being conducted at all airports in the state.
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