Guidelines To Manage Monkeypox Issued; Check Symptoms, Incubation Period

New Delhi: With the Monkeypox virus spreading across the United States, Europe and African nations, Union Health Ministry issued the first set of guidelines on the management of the disease on Tuesday.

The Ministry stressed surveillance and rapid identification of new cases as the key public health measures for outbreak containment. It, however, confirmed that there are no reported cases as on date of monkeypox disease in India.

The three samples of the suspected monkeypox infection sent to the lab at National Institute of Virology tested negative for the virus, the Financial Express reported.

“India needs to be prepared in view of the increasing reports of cases in non-endemic countries even as no case of monkeypox virus has been reported in the country till date,” the notification said.

According to the guidelines, contacts should be monitored at least daily for the onset of signs/symptoms for a period of 21 days (as per case definition) from the last contact with a patient or their contaminated materials during the infectious period.

All the clinical specimens should be transported to the Apex Laboratory of ICMR-NIV (Pune) routed through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) network of the respective district/state, it said.

The Ministry added that it is keeping a close watch on the evolving situation. `We are maintaining a close watch on the situation. Monkeypox (MPX) is a viral zoonotic disease with symptoms similar to smallpox, although with less clinical severity,’’ a Health Ministry official told The Hindu.

SYMPTOMS

Acute rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever, head/body ache and profound weakness.

The patient should be closely monitored for the appearance of symptoms, including pain in the eye or blurring of vision, shortness of breath, chest pain, difficulty in breathing, altered consciousness, seizure, decrease in urine output, poor oral intake and lethargy, during the period of isolation.

INCUBATION PERIOD

6 to 13 days, but can range from 5 to 21 days, and the period of communicability is 1-2 days before the rash until all the scabs fall off/get subsided.

CARRIER

Certain rodents (including rope squirrels, tree squirrels, Gambian pouched rats, dormice) and non-human primates are known to be naturally susceptible to monkeypox virus.

According to WHO, 23 nations around the globe have reported this virus.