New wards set up for monkeypox patients at Hyderabad hospital.
The threat of the dangerous disease monkeypox, which is spreading rapidly across the world, has started appearing in India as well. Its first patient has been found in India. The virus of this dangerous disease has spread from Africa to Europe and America. Now India can also become a victim of this global health crisis. Meanwhile, the central government on Monday advised the states and union territories to conduct screening and investigation of all suspected cases of monkeypox at the community level and to mark isolation facilities in hospitals for patients in both suspected and confirmed cases.
Read the center’s guidelines here-
Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra in a letter to the states and Union Territories on Monday asked them to prevent any unnecessary panic among the people. Emphasising the need to remain vigilant, he said, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is constantly monitoring the situation. He asked the states and UTs to review public health preparedness especially at the health centre level, identify isolation facilities in hospitals and ensure availability of necessary logistics and trained human resources at such facilities. The Union Health Secretary also called upon all key stakeholders to remain vigilant, focusing on surveillance units under the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) at the state and district levels so that they can be activated in time regarding definitions of suspected, probable, confirmed cases, contact tracing and other surveillance activities. All states were asked to review public health preparedness and isolation facilities for both suspected and confirmed cases, besides making people aware about the mode of spread of the disease, the need for timely reporting and preventive measures. He said the Health Ministry is continuously monitoring the evolving situation. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the current outbreak of ampox as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on August 14. As underlined by the WHO, the decision was taken in view of the steadily increasing trend of ampox cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the last six months. The spread of ampox cases has been reported from new East African countries like Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Chandra said WHO in its latest situational update has highlighted that the clinical picture of the cases has remained largely consistent. Most of the cases are young men with a median age of 34 years (18-44 years). Sexual contact is the most common mode of transmission reported globally, followed by person-to-person non-sexual contact and in cases where at least one symptom is reported, the most common symptom is rash, followed by fever. The disease surveillance network under the IDSP continues to monitor any ‘clustering’ of such cases. The Union Health Secretary said that health units at entry points (airports) have been directed to strengthen health screening of incoming travellers to detect any suspected cases. The laboratory network under the Indian Council of Medical Research has also been strengthened, he said. Further, keeping in view the epidemiology of the disease, State AIDS Control Committees are requested to remain vigilant to identify suspected cases and raise community awareness on the issue to promote timely reporting of cases. Chandra also highlighted some of the key public health actions required to prevent/minimise the risk of any cases or deaths due to ampox in the country. He emphasised on wide dissemination of the Ministry’s guidelines for management of ampox and dissemination and action on updated ‘CD-Alerts’ on the disease issued by NCDC.
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