NEW DELHI: Dr VK Paul from Niti Aayog, who leads the policy framework for managing the Covid-19 pandemic, is one of the members of the Center’s task force on monkey pox. It also has Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan and other senior health officials as members, the sources said.
The government actions come amid a continued increase in cases of the virus which has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. World Health Organization recently. In India, officials say, six cases of monkeypox have been confirmed so far – four from Kerala and two from Delhi.
The latest confirmed case is a 35-year-old Nigerian who is currently being treated at Lok Nayak hospital. The first case of monkeypox in the capital was a 31-year-old man, who also had no travel history. All four cases reported from Kerala had travel history to UAE.
The first death in India from monkeypox was reported recently in Kerala. The state health minister said a 22-year-old man, who had just returned from the UAE after testing positive for the infection there, died of the disease on Saturday.
A senior official in the health ministry said the government was monitoring the situation closely and taking advance steps to deal with any potential crisis. “We have issued detailed guidelines for the state on the management of smallpox in monkeys. Furthermore, an expression of interest (EoI) has been invited by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for bids from private companies to develop test kits and vaccine candidates against monkeypox virus. The task force’s role will be to expedite this process,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Monkeypox was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But for the next nearly 50 years, very few cases of the virus were reported from outside Africa, where it circulated. That’s why the sudden spread of this disease to epidemic-free areas including the US, UK, Europe and India, among others, took everyone by surprise.
The government actions come amid a continued increase in cases of the virus which has been declared a public health emergency of international concern. World Health Organization recently. In India, officials say, six cases of monkeypox have been confirmed so far – four from Kerala and two from Delhi.
The latest confirmed case is a 35-year-old Nigerian who is currently being treated at Lok Nayak hospital. The first case of monkeypox in the capital was a 31-year-old man, who also had no travel history. All four cases reported from Kerala had travel history to UAE.
The first death in India from monkeypox was reported recently in Kerala. The state health minister said a 22-year-old man, who had just returned from the UAE after testing positive for the infection there, died of the disease on Saturday.
A senior official in the health ministry said the government was monitoring the situation closely and taking advance steps to deal with any potential crisis. “We have issued detailed guidelines for the state on the management of smallpox in monkeys. Furthermore, an expression of interest (EoI) has been invited by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for bids from private companies to develop test kits and vaccine candidates against monkeypox virus. The task force’s role will be to expedite this process,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Monkeypox was first identified in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. But for the next nearly 50 years, very few cases of the virus were reported from outside Africa, where it circulated. That’s why the sudden spread of this disease to epidemic-free areas including the US, UK, Europe and India, among others, took everyone by surprise.
