THIRUVANANTHAPURAM/THRISSUR/PATHANAMTHITTA: A youth who died in Thrissur on Saturday after showing symptoms of Monkeypox had tested positive in the UAE about 10 days ago but had not disclosed it to the doctors who attended to him in Kerala, Health Minister Veena George said on Sunday. She has directed the health officials to constitute a high-level team to probe the death.
The 22-year-old's sample has been sent to the National Institute of Virology in Alappuzha. The results are expected on Monday. He was not among the three who tested positive for Monkeypox in the state. If positive, he could be the first victim of Monkeypox in the country and the fourth outside Africa.
Veena said the victim was a native of Punniyoor in Thrissur. He returned from Ras Al Khaimah on July 21. He had conducted tests for Monkeypox on July 19 and 20 and both the results turned out to be positive. His relatives handed over the results to the doctors in Thrissur only on Saturday.
Local residents said the victim had no symptoms and he even played football along with friends. However, he was admitted with high fever and febrile seizure on July 27, and died at a private hospital.
The health minister said the probe will also cover the reasons for the delay in him getting treatment. She clarified that mortality is rare in Monkeypox. A senior ENT doctor in Thrissur said the victim was suffering from comorbidities.
The health authorities have strengthened containment measures after the death was reported. As many as 10 primary contacts including the victim's parents, elder brother and sister were asked to isolate themselves. The health officials have already traced down his friends and co-players and asked all of them to go into isolation. The department has started working with Punnayur panchayat.
"The panchayat will work along with health authorities to contain the infection. Door-to-door awareness campaign will be conducted on Monday in the panchayat area so that people don't panic," said Punnayur panchayat president Surendran TV.
A meeting of Asha workers, health officials, anganwadi workers and elected representatives will be convened on Monday to initiate the awareness campaign.
Kerala has so far reported three Monkeypox cases among the four in the country.
CSIR Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, which conducted the genomic sequencing of the samples in the country, said that all the patients were infected with the A.1 variant which is less transmittable than the B.1 variant that caused super-spreading in Europe.