A 35-year-old Nigerian man, living in Delhi and having no recent history of foreign travel, has tested positive for monkeypox, news agency PTI reported citing official sources.
The Nigerian national, who is the second person in Delhi to test positive for the infection, is admitted to the Delhi government-run LNJP Hospital, the nodal hospital for treatment of the infection. This is the sixth monkeypox case in India.
The 35-year-old has has blisters and fever for the last five days, according to PTI. His samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. The report, which arrived Monday evening, came out positive. Two suspected patients of monkeypox, who are of African origin, have also been admitted to the LNJP Hospital.
Read More: Centre Forms Task Force to Closely Monitor Monkeypox Virus Situation in Country
Meanwhile, a task force on monkeypox has been constituted to closely monitor the emerging situation in the country and decide on response initiatives to tackle the spread of the disease.
A 22-year-old man, who recently returned to Kerala from the UAE, allegedly died due to monkeypox on Saturday. India has reported a total of four cases of the disease so far.
The decision to constitute the task force was taken at a high-level meeting held on July 26 at the level of the principal secretary to the prime minister to review the ongoing public health preparedness in the country.
The task force will be headed by Dr V K Paul, NITI Aayog member (health). The National Aids Control Organisation and the Directorate General of Health Services in the Health Ministry have been asked to work on a targeted communication strategy to promote timely reporting, detection of cases and management of cases, an official source said.
Before April 2022, monkeypox virus infection in humans was seldom reported outside African regions, where it is endemic.
Read More: Test, Track, Trace: Time to Revise Learnings from Covid Outbreak to Tackle Monkeypox
Till last week, over 20,000 cases were reported in 77 countries. More than 2,100 monkeypox cases have been recorded in 11 African countries and 75 people have died.
(With PTI inputs)
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