Although the patient was symptomatic when he arrived, he was not flagged by the airport surveillance system, immigration, or even security.
Published Jul 15, 2022 | 12:42 PM ⚊ Updated Jul 26, 2022 | 2:29 PM
Health Minister Veena George has said the Kerala government has now stepped up surveillance and directed airport and port authorities to be more vigilant. (Trivandrum airport official website)
A day after India’s first monkeypox case was confirmed in a 35-year-old man who landed in Kerala’s capital from the UAE, there is concern in the state government over how he managed to exit the airport without being stopped despite having all the telltale symptoms of the disease.
He subsequently travelled from Thiruvananthapuram by taxi to his home in Kollam, 73 km away.
Sources in the state Health Department, who preferred anonymity, told South First that although the patient was quite obviously symptomatic when he arrived, he was not flagged by the airport surveillance system, immigration officials, or even security personnel.
Health Minister Veena George told South First that the government has now stepped up surveillance and directed airport and port authorities to be more vigilant about identifying and isolating sick passengers flying in from outside the country.
George said airport authorities in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore and Karnataka’s Mangaluru have also been alerted as many non-resident Keralites belonging to the Palakkad and Kasargod districts use these airports when they return to their native places from abroad.
The minister said she would request the Union Ministries of External Affairs, Aviation, and Health to screen all those who arrive from infected countries at transit points.
She said the situation compels her to suspect all the epidemiologically-linked symptomatic cases of Monkeypox, adding that symptomatic people must be isolated for at least two weeks.
The minister, however, reiterated that the patient arrived covering his body well, and that the chances of his co-passengers having been infected are meagre.
Even so, 11 of his co-passengers have been placed in home isolation and are being monitored.
The taxi driver who took the patient home, the autorickshaw driver who dropped him to a private hospital in Kollam, and his parents have also been placed in isolation wards and are being monitored. They will remain isolated for 21 days, George said.
Asking people not to panic, she said all districts in Kerala have been directed to enhance disease surveillance and be on the lookout for any fever with unusual symptoms.
Public health expert Dr SS Lal told South First that the state must ensure no person can leave the airport. He said airport-based surveillance needs to be enhanced as hundreds of people from countries that have reported Monkeypox infection are reaching the four international airports in the state daily.
He was also critical of the Health Department for failing to ensure its laboratories were capable of testing for Monkeypox. Sending samples to the Pune laboratory is time-consuming, and the results take time, he noted.
Health activist Dr NS Arun pointed out the similarities between the first Monkeypox case confirmed in Kerala and the first confirmed case of Covid-19.
Then, too, the viral infection was detected in a symptomatic person who returned from a country where the disease had already been confirmed.
“Though the infectivity and mortality in Monkeypox are low compared to Covid-19, how airport surveillance systems function needs to be reviewed and loopholes plugged,” Arun told South First.
Meanwhile, Thiruvananthapuram Medical College principal Dr P Kala Kesavan told reporters the patient’s condition improved significantly in the past 24 hours, and there was no cause for concern.
None of his close contacts was showing symptoms, she added.
Doctors and staff at the private hospital in Kollam, where the patient initially sought treatment, have been asked to remain vigilant, she said.
There is, however, no immediate threat to them as they all wore PPE.
Monkeypox typically spreads only through close contact between people.
