This comes at a time when a suspected case of Monkeypox, the first in India, has been reported from Kerala, the state health minister said on Thursday.
The Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan is also set to chair a video conference to review the vaccination status and also guide the States and Union Territories on the next 75 days about the precaution dose mission, said sources on Thursday.
“As Covid-19 pandemic continues to pose challenge, it is vital we remain aware, and alert about other public health threats and proactively prepare ourselves to tackle them", read the notice from Bhushan.
In the notice Bhushan also mentioned that proactive screening and operationalization of requisite public health actions for preparedness and response is the need of the hour.
He asked that all entry points be screened and tested for suspected cases of Monkeypox. he further mentioned that all patients should be isolated unless all the lesions have resolved and scabs have completely fallen off. Further hospitals need to be identified and adequate human resource should be made available for risk communication of the impending pandemic.
According to World Health Organization (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.
The clinical presentation of monkeypox resembles that of smallpox, a related orthopoxvirus infection which was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980. It typically presents clinically with fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes and may lead to a range of medical complications.
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.
