NEW DELHI: India on Monday reported its first case of Mpox Clade 1b variant in Malappuram district in Kerala, officials sources confirmed. Clade 1b is the fast-spreading and severe viral strain that has been declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organization.
The patient, a 38-year-old man, had recently returned from the United Arab Emirates and was admitted to the government medical college hospital after he tested positive for Mpox last week, officials said.
Official sources added that the patient, who is stable, has not been discharged from the hospital. “This is the first case of the current strain that led to the WHO declaring Mpox a public health emergency last month for a second time,” they said.
The state authorities are monitoring the situation and contract tracing all individuals who have come in contact with the patient, officials said.
Kerala’s health minister Veena George said those returning from abroad, if they have any symptoms, should inform the health department and seek treatment at the earliest.
“Isolation facilities have been established in all districts. Surveillance has been strengthened, including at airports,” she said.
This is the second case of Mpox in India.
The earlier case of Mpox that emerged in the national capital was a 26-year-old resident of Haryana’s Hisar, who tested positive for the West African Clade 2 strain. He was admitted to Delhi’s Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital on September 8 and was discharged on September 21.
Mpox infections, which manifest with fever, rash, and swollen lymph nodes, last two to four weeks, and patients recover with supportive medical care. “It is a self-limiting disease and cannot be compared with COVID,” officials said.
Notably, the Union Health Ministry issued a fresh advisory to all states and union territories to track, test, and treat suspected mpox cases after a man who had travelled to India from a country with reported infections tested positive and was isolated in a Delhi government hospital.
In a detailed advisory to states and union territories, the Centre directed them to implement public health measures such as contact tracing and monitoring. Issued by Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra, the advisory urged states to enhance surveillance, screening, testing, and contact tracing of all suspected mpox cases.
States were also instructed to identify hospital isolation units for suspected and confirmed patients and ensure senior officials review public health preparedness, particularly at the state and district health facility levels.
The advisory noted that most mpox cases are young males with a median age of 34 (18-44), with sexual contact being the most common mode of transmission, followed by non-sexual person-to-person contact.
The most frequently reported symptom is a rash (including systemic or genital), followed by fever. Additionally, 51.9% of cases with available HIV data involve individuals living with HIV.
On August 14, the WHO had declared Mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that is rapidly spreading to neighbouring African countries.