Health ministry asks NCDC, ICMR to keep vigil on suspected monkeypox cases

Monkeypox symtoms include rashes which tend to be more concentrated on the face, palms of the hands and soles of the feet and genitalia. (Image credit: WHO)

The Union health ministry on May 20 alerted the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) to keep an eye on suspected cases of monkeypox in travellers coming from countries where cases of the viral disease have been confirmed.

Any samples from suspected cases, when collected, will be sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune under the ICMR and examined at the biosafety level 4 laboratory.

Globally, more than 100 cases of monkeypox have been reported over the past few days, mostly in Europe and North America.

The outbreaks are raising alarm as the viral disease, over the last several decades, was largely restricted to western and central Africa, and only occasionally spread elsewhere.

Trasmitted through the monkeypox virus, the disease causes fever symptoms as well as a distinctive bumpy rash. It is usually mild, although there are two main strains: the Congo strain, which is more severe – with up to 10 percent mortality – and the West African strain, which has a fatality rate in about 1 percent of cases. The cases detected in the United Kingdom have been reported as those caused by the West African strain.

"Historically, there have been very few cases exported. It has only happened eight times in the past before this year," Jimmy Whitworth, a professor of international public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, told Reuters.

The virus spreads through close contact, both in spillovers from animals and, less commonly, between humans. It was first found in monkeys in 1958, hence the name, although rodents are now seen as the probable main animal host.

Transmission this time is puzzling experts, because a number of the cases in the United Kingdom - nine as of May 18 - have no known connection with each other. Only the first case reported on May 6 had recently traveled to Nigeria.

As such, experts have warned of wider transmission if cases have gone unreported.

The UK Health Security Agency's alert also highlighted that the recent cases were predominantly among men who self-identified as gay, bisexual or men who have sex with men, and advised those groups to be aware. read more

Scientists are now carrying out genomic sequencing to see if the viruses are linked, the World Health Organization (WHO) said this week.