India has joined Spain and Brazil to report the first monkeypox-related death outside Africa.
Kerala reported the first monkeypox death that of a youth who died in Thrissur on Saturday. This is the fourth death in the world.
The 22-year-old had tested positive for monkeypox about 10 days ago in the UAE but had reportedly not disclosed it to the doctors who attended him.
The National Institute of Virology in Pune where his samples were tested after an initial confirmation at the institute’s regional unit in Kerala confirmed today that the death was due to monkeypox.
On Sunday, Health Minister Veena George had directed the health officials to constitute a high-level team to probe the death.
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.
Meanwhile, the Centre has formed a task force to closely monitor the emerging situation in the country in the wake of rising monkeypox cases and chalk out measures to curb the spread of the disease.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO), this is the first time that many monkeypox cases and clusters have been reported concurrently in non-endemic and endemic countries in widely disparate geographical areas.
A WHO statement said that most reported cases so far have been identified through sexual health or other health services in primary or secondary health-care facilities and have involved mainly, but not exclusively, men who have sex with men.
WHO is collaborating with health authorities to prevent the further spread of the disease.