India reports first case of Clade 1 variant of Mpox

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| Photo Credit: Reuters

India has reported its first case of the Clade 1 variant of Mpox which, according to Health Ministry sources, has been confirmed in a 38-year-old youth who landed in Kerala last week from the UAE. The youth was admitted to the government medical college hospital in Malappuram’s Manjeri on Monday last after he developed symptoms of the disease.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared Mpox a global public health emergency again in August 2024 due to the spread of a new and deadlier strain of the virus, clade 1b

The earlier case of Mpox that emerged in Delhi was of a 26-year-old resident of Haryana’s Hisar who had tested positive for the previous West African Clade 2 strain earlier this month.

Since the 2022 declaration of Mpox as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern by the WHO, 30 cases were reported in India.

The Health Ministry said in the most recent case of Mpox that the patient’s condition is stable, contact tracing is on and that there doesn’t seem to be any cause for public concern.

“While we need to be cautious there is no danger of mass transmission as was the case with COVID. This disease spreads through close contact, exchange of body fluids and is known to have a much lower mortality rate when compared to COVID,’” he said.

He added that Mpox infections are generally self-limiting, lasting between two and four weeks, and patients usually recover with supportive medical care and management.

“It typically manifests itself with fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes and may lead to a range of medical complications,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Kerala health minister has already appealed to the public, including those returning from abroad with any symptoms, to inform the health department and seek treatment at the earliest.In a social media post, she also released a list of state-run hospitals in various districts where treatment and isolation facilities for the affected persons have been arranged. Besides this, treatment was available in all medical colleges in the state, the minister said.

According to the World Health Organisation Mpox, previously known as monkeypox, is a viral illness caused by the monkeypox virus, a species of the genus Orthopoxvirus. There are two distinct clades of the virus: clade I (with subclades Ia and Ib) and clade II (with subclades IIa and IIb). In 2022–2023 a global outbreak of mpox was caused by the clade IIb strain. It added that Mpox is treated with supportive care for symptoms such as pain and fever, with close attention to nutrition, hydration, skin care, prevention of secondary infections and treatment of co-infections, including HIV where present.