Kerala reports suspected monkeypox case in UAE returnee, samples sent for testing

Thiruvananthapuram: A suspected case of monkeypox, the first in India, has been reported from Kerala, the state health minister said on Thursday.

A traveller who arrived in Kerala three days ago from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was hospitalized after he displayed symptoms of monkeypox.

The minister said the traveler's samples have been collected and sent to the National Institute of Virology for testing.

George said the disease could be confirmed only after getting the test results.

Without revealing more details, George said the person showed symptoms of monkeypox and he was in close contact with a monkeypox patient abroad.

According to the World Health Organisation or WHO, monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals) with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.

Monkeypox is transmitted to humans through close contact with an infected person or animal, or with material contaminated with the virus. It is usually a self-limited disease with symptoms lasting from two to four weeks, WHO said.

Monkeypox virus is transmitted from one person to another by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets, and contaminated materials such as bedding.

With the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and the subsequent cessation of smallpox vaccination, monkeypox has emerged as the most important orthopoxvirus for public health.

Human monkeypox was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in a 9-month-old boy in a region where smallpox had been eliminated in 1968. Since then, most cases have been reported from rural, rainforest regions of the Congo Basin, particularly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and human cases have increasingly been reported from across central and west Africa, according to WHO.