NEW DELHI: Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Tuesday the condition of the mpox patient admitted to the LNJP Hospital was stable.
“There is one confirmed patient of mpox at LNJP hospital. He has a travel history and it is believed that he got infected during his travel abroad,” the minister said while conducting a surprise inspection at the hospital to assess its preparations for dealing with cases of mpox and dengue.
This is the first case of the mpox, declared as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organisation (WHO), in the country.
“The patient has been isolated in a separate ward. He is in a stable condition,” he added.
The 26-year-old patient, a resident of Haryana’s Hisar, has only genital ulcers and skin rashes but no fever, a health department official said. The patient was kept in the disaster management ward of the hospital, according to a statement from the health department.
Bharadwaj emphasised that there was no need to panic over mpox as it spreads through contact, not through the air.
The Union health ministry on Monday said that it was an “isolated case” and there was no immediate risk to the public. “The individual, a young male who recently travelled from a country experiencing ongoing mpox transmission, is currently isolated at a designated tertiary care isolation facility. The patient remains clinically stable and is without any systemic illness or comorbidities,” the ministry had said.
The patient was admitted to the Delhi government-run hospital on Saturday.
While the LNJP has been designated as the nodal facility, two other hospitals are on standby. The LNJP Hospital has a total of 20 isolation rooms for the patients, including 10 for confirmed cases. The Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital and Baba Saheb Ambedkar will have ten rooms each for such patients, with five rooms each for suspected cases.
The health minister said that the cases of fever have increased a bit but there is nothing to worry about right now. He said separate waiting rooms for attendants of the patients will be set up at every ward.
