Kerala reports India's first Monkeypox case

Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Thursday said that the suspected case of monkeypox which was found earlier in the day has tested positive.

The patient is a traveller from UAE and arrived in Kerala on 12th July.

"He reached Trivandrum airport and all the steps are being taken as per the guidelines issued by WHO and ICMR," George added.

Samples from the traveller had been sent for testing to the National Institute of Virology in Pune.

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.

In 2003, the first monkeypox outbreak outside of Africa was in the United States of America and was linked to contact with infected pet prairie dogs. These pets had been housed with Gambian pouched rats and dormice that had been imported into the country from Ghana.