MUMBAI: Samples of two more suspected patients of monkeypox have tested negative for the virus, said state public health officials on Friday.
With these results, the state has so far tested 10 people for monkeypox over the last few weeks, said state surveillance officer Dr Pradip Awate.
"The 10 samples were sent to NIV (National Institute of Virology) in Pune and all have come back negative,'' he said.
TOI had in edition dated July 28 reported about a 30-year-old man from West Bengal who was admitted to Ahmednagar Civil Hospital with symptoms suggesting monkeypox. He is among the two suspects who tested negative on Friday.
Meanwhile, Dr Awate said that two more laboratories in the state will test for monkeypox.
While the union government had initially only allowed NIV to test for the virus, earlier in the week it gave permission to 15 more centres to conduct the test.
"Monkeypox diagnosis facility will also be available at Kasturba Hospital Central Laboratory, Mumbai, and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur,'' added Dr Awate.
Two of the 10 suspects were from Mumbai, and the test on the second suspect was conducted at Kasturba Hospital.
Only three or the 10 suspects had a travel history. According to BMC officials, the monkeypox suspects in Mumbai were later diagnosed as cases of chicken pox and hand-foot-and-mouth disease
Monkeypox is a viral infection caused by a virus belonging to the same family of viruses that cause the deadly smallpox. A few days back, the World Health Organisation declared monkeypox as a global health emergency, with cases affecting 19,000 people across 75 countries.
