A meeting of the Joint Monitoring Group chaired by the Director General of Health Services, comprising experts from relevant fields, was held on August 16 to review the situation. (Photo: PTI)
After the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda conducted a detailed review of the monkeypox situation and preparedness at a meeting with senior officials of the Ministry on Saturday.
To date, no cases of monkeypox have been reported in India.
In the meeting chaired by the Union Health Minister, it was decided that as an utmost precautionary measure, certain measures will be adopted [such as sensitizing the health units at all the airports, seaports, and ground crossings; readying the testing Laboratories (32 in no.); gearing up health facilities for detecting, isolating and managing any case, etc.] are set in motion.
The meeting noted that monkeypox infections are usually self-limiting, lasting two to four weeks, and that patients usually recover with supportive care. Transmission requires close and prolonged contact with an infected case and usually occurs through sexual contact, direct contact with bodily fluid or an injury, or contaminated bedding or clothing of an infected person.
WHO had previously declared monkeypox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in July 2022 and subsequently revoked it in May 2023. Globally, since 2022, WHO has reported 99,176 cases and 208 deaths from monkeypox from 116 countries. Since the WHO declaration in 2022, a total of 30 cases have been detected in India, the last case in March 2024.
A meeting of the Joint Monitoring Group under the chairmanship of the Director-General of Health Services, comprising experts from relevant fields, was held on 16 August to review the situation.
The meeting was attended by experts from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), World Health Organization (WHO), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), National Centre for Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), Directorate General of Health Services (Dte.GHS), Central Government Hospitals, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), etc.
Although the possibility of some imported cases being detected in the coming weeks cannot be completely ruled out, the risk of a large outbreak with sustained transmission is currently assessed as low for India.
The Ministry is closely monitoring the situation.
(Only the headline and image of this report may have been reworked by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
First published: August 17, 2024 | 18:33 IS
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