India to Issue Mpox Screening Guidelines for International Arrivals
HYDERABAD: Guidelines on screening of international passengers arriving from a handful of countries from where Mpox, or monkeypox disease cases have been reported from, are likely to be in place in the next few days it is learnt.
“Discussions are on about how to go about this. As of now cases have been reported from a few countries in Africa. It is expected that official guidelines could be announced focusing on these countries to start with from the government,” a health official familiar with the discussions said.
There is no need for panic or cause for worry, the official added.
The World Health Organisation had on Thursday declared Mpox as a global health emergency with around 17,000 cases of the disease reported from Africa, with almost all of them coming from Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Burundi, Rwanda, and Gabon, with 537 deaths reported from among the patients.
One case was found in Sweden with authorities in that country saying the patient had recently travelled to one of the African countries from where cases have been reported from, and this patient was receiving treatment.
Following the WHO making a similar declaration after the outbreak of Covid-19, the Indian government had put in place a series of measures to screen international passengers arriving in India from countries from where Covid cases were reported. However, since Mpox is not spread in aerosol form, as was the case with Covid-19, the threat of it spreading fast may be minimal as this disease spreads primarily through direct physical contact with an infected person. It can also be transmitted when a health person comes into contact with contaminated materials, or with infected animals.
Mpox symptoms include a skin rash or mucosal lesions which can last for two to four weeks accompanied by fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes.
According to WHO, the outbreak in Africa is being caused by a new strain of the disease, which has been named Clade 1, and is believed to be spreading primarily through sexual networks.
On WHO declaring a global health emergency, Dr Suneetha Nareddy, infectious diseases specialist from Apollo Hospitals, said the decision likely arose from the fact that the outbreak was resulting in more deaths than in the past.
Dr Burri Rangareddy, president of Infection Control Academy of India, and honorary professor at University of Hyderabad’s School of Medical Sciences, said the WHO decision should place the people on the alert for Mpox and take necessary steps to prevent its occurrence or spread in India.
Incidentally, the healthcare industry in Hyderabad serves thousands of patients from various African and Gulf nations who seek treatment in the city hospitals every year.