Kerala reports second case of Mpox, 29-year-old man admitted in Kochi hospital
Sep 27, 2024 05:54 PM IST
On September 18, a 38-year-old native of Edavanna in Malappuram district, who arrived from the UAE, had tested positive for Mpox.
A 29-year-old man has tested positive for monkeypox (Mpox) and is currently under treatment in Kochi, confirmed Kerala health minister Veena George on Friday, making it the second case of the viral infection in the state in less than two weeks.
“He had recently arrived in the state from abroad with symptoms. He is currently admitted in a private hospital in Kochi and is stable,” George told reporters.
Tests will be done to determine the strain of the Mpox virus, a health official said.
On September 18, the state health department had informed that a 38-year-old native of Edavanna in Malappuram district, who arrived from the UAE, had tested positive for Mpox. He was admitted to the Government Medical College and Hospital in Manjery after showing symptoms like Mpox. He is currently stable.
Earlier this week, it was confirmed that the variant of Mpox found in the 38-year-old man was ‘clade 1b’, a highly transmissible strain currently linked to the outbreak in Africa and other countries. It was the first such Mpox case in India.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared Mpox a public health emergency in Africa in August.
According to the WHO, the monkeypox virus is an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus of the Orthopoxvirus genus and has two distinct clades. In 2022, a global outbreak of ‘clade 1b’ began, which continues to this day. The infection spreads from person to person, primarily through close contact and its common symptoms are fever, sore throat, headache, swollen lymph nodes and muscle aches.
