The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday issued fresh guidelines to states and union territories to manage the spread of the monkeypox virus in the country. The government urged district surveillance units to consider initiating a detailed investigation through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme. The health ministry laid stress on the surveillance and rapid identification of new cases. It added that all the clinical specimens should be transported to the apex laboratory of ICMR-NIV (Pune) routed through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) network of the respective district or state.
- A confirmed case is laboratory confirmed for monkeypox virus by detection of unique sequences of viral DNA either by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or sequencing.
- The guidelines stated that India needs to be prepared in view of the increasing reports of cases in non-endemic countries even as no case of monkeypox virus has been reported in the country to date.
- The guidelines explain the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures, IPC at home, patient isolation and ambulance transfer strategies, additional precautions that need to be taken care of and the duration of isolation procedures.
- Contacts should be monitored at least daily for the onset of signs or symptoms for a period of 21 days (as per case definition) from the last contact with a patient or their contaminated materials during the infectious period.
- The guidelines further explain in detail about raising awareness and educating people about the measures for monkeypox virus like avoiding contact with any material of the sick person, isolation of the infected patient from others, practicing good hand hygiene and using appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) when caring for patients.
- Monkeypox has been reported as endemic in several other central and western African countries such as Cameroon, Central African Republic, Cote d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, and Sierra Leone.
- Cases have been also reported in certain non-endemic countries like the US, the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Australia, Canada, Austria, Israel and Switzerland. The health ministry said it continues to maintain a close watch over the evolving situation.
(With PTI Inputs)
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