The State Health department has issued an alert against mpox (known earlier as Monkeypox) with the World Health Organization last week declaring that the outbreak in many African nations now has to be considered a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.
The Health department said on Wednesday that the State had formulated a Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) in 2022 itself when the disease was first reported in Kerala.
As directed by the guidelines issued by the Centre, surveillance teams have been deployed in all airports in the State and those returning from countries where mpox has been reported should report to the health authorities if they develop any symptoms, a statement issued by the Health department said.
The department has readied isolation facilities in hospitals, sample collection centres and treatment protocols. The treatment protocols issued by the government should be followed by all government and private hospitals treating mpox cases, the statement said.
Mpox came into limelight in 2022, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, when cases were reported in India too. Kerala reported two cases of mpox in March this year.
Mpox outbreak has been spreading in many Central and Eastern African nations since 2023. Just last week, hours after the WHO’s declaration that mpox was a PHEI, Sweden reported the first case of mpox outside of the African continent.
The disease, caused by a virus of the same family as small pox, is transmitted through close skin-to-skin contact, sexual contact and through very close interaction with the infected person. The disease is usually self-limiting and patients recover through proper treatment and supportive care. But in some cases the infection turns fatal.
The virus enters the body through broken skin, the respiratory tract or through the eyes, nose or mouth. Touching objects, clothes or surfaces contaminated by an infected person can transmit the disease.
While it causes fever and flu-like symptoms, the most characteristic symptom of the disease are the skin rashes it causes, first on the face, which then spreads to the rest of the body, especially the palms and the soles of the feet, mouth and the genitals. The rashes are itchy, painful and leave behind skin lesions or deep scars.
The current concern about mpox is the fact that it is a new clade of the mpox virus — Clade 1b — which seems to be in circulation since last year and that this is a more transmissible version of the virus, causing more serious disease. The previous outbreak of 2022 had been caused by the milder Clade 2 virus.
If sexual contact was the primary driver of the mpox outbreak in 2022 caused by Clade 2 virus and spread amongst a subset of sexually active men having sex with men, the infections caused by the new Clade 1b variant is spreading amongst the younger population, especially children under 15 years.
While anyone with a weak immune system is at risk of contracting the disease through interaction with an infected person, many experts are concerned that young children could be especially vulnerable to the new mpox virus, because of their immune system may still be developing.
