Meeting of experts to discuss monkeypox management begins

A meeting of top health experts was underway to discuss guidelines on management of monkeypox on Thursday as India has so far reported nine cases of the disease and one death.

Emergency Medical Relief (EMR) director L Swasticharan was chairing the meeting and representatives of the National Centre for Disease Control, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and World Health Organisation (WHO) were among those attending it.

EMR is a wing of the Union health ministry, which oversees the management of public health matters of national and international concerns.

A ministry official said the meeting began at 10am to discuss a fresh approach to handling the rising monkeypox cases.

A 31-year-old woman tested positive for monkeypox in Delhi on Wednesday, becoming the fourth person in the city, and the first woman in the country, to be diagnosed with the viral infection.

The woman, a Nigerian national, was admitted to Lok Nayak Hospital since Tuesday and does not have a history of foreign travel, just like the previous three patients. 

Two other monkeypox patients, also Nigerians, are being treated at the facility. Hospital officials confirmed the three Nigerian patients are not contacts of each other, do not know each other and "live in separate parts" of Delhi. Five other monkeypox cases have been reported from Kerala.

The Centre earlier issued guidelines on management of monkeypox under which any person having a history of travel to affected countries within the last 21 days presenting with an unexplained acute rash and symptoms like swollen lymph nodes, fever, headaches, body aches and profound weakness is to be considered to a suspected case.

WHO has declared monkeypox a global public health emergency of international concern. Monkeypox is a viral zoonosis  a virus transmitted to humans from animals with symptoms similar to smallpox although clinically less severe.