A 40-year-old resident of Telangana’s Kamareddy district of Telangana with a travel history to Kuwait has shown symptoms of monkeypox. The patient hails from Indira Nagar in Kamareddy town. He returned to India on July 6. He developed symptoms of fever on July 20 and rashes on July 23.
On Monday, he went to a private hospital which referred him to Kamareddy district government hospital. After identifying monkeypox symptoms, doctors shifted him to government fever hospital in Hyderabad. His samples would be sent to NIV, Pune, G Srinivasa Rao, director of public health, Telangana said.
India has so far reported four monkeypox cases, one in Delhi and three in Kerala. Earlier in the day, a 31-year-old resident of West Delhi with no recent foreign travel history was tested positive for monkeypox. The patient is currently admitted at the national capital’s Lok Nayak Hospital.
The officials said that the man started showing the first symptoms at least ten days ago. He first developed fever and then skin lesions. He was admitted to the Lok Nayak Hospital’s isolation ward two days ago.
On Saturday, the World Health Organisation declared monkeypox as a global health emergency, describing it as an extraordinary situation considered the outbreak across more than 75 countries.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the UN agency’s director-general took the decision to call monkeypox a global emergency despite lack of consensus among the health experts on WHO’s emergency committee.
“I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern,” Ghebreyesus said at a press conference.
The first symptoms of monkeypox are fever, headaches, muscle pain and back pain during the course of five days.
Rashes subsequently appear on the face, palms of hands and soles of the feet, followed by lesions, spots and finally scabs.
The total confirmed cases of monkeypox across the world have crossed 15,600 with maximum cases reported in France, Germany, Spain, UK and USA, Reuters reported.
The illness, which spreads through close contact and was first found in monkeys.
