NEW DELHI: Union

health minister

JP

Nadda

on Saturday chaired a

meeting

with senior officials of the ministry to evaluate the monkeypox situation and country’s preparedness.
“In the meeting chaired by the Union health minister, it was decided that as a matter of abundant caution, certain measures such as sensitizing the health units at all the airports, seaports, and ground crossings; readying the testing Laboratories; gearing up health facilities for detecting, isolating and managing any case, etc.

are put in place,” the Union health ministry said in a statement.
“In the meeting, it was noted that Monkeypox infections are usually self-limiting lasting between 2-4 weeks and patients generally recover with supportive management. The transmission requires prolonged close contact with an infected case and is generally through the sexual route, direct contact with body/lesion fluid, or contaminated clothing/linen of an infected person,” it added.
Mpox has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa CDC this week, after the latest outbreak spread to 13 countries in Africa, including four new countries. There are no reported cases of Monkeypox in India as of date.

Although the possibility of a few imported cases being detected in the coming weeks is not entirely ruled out, it was assessed that the risk of a large outbreak with sustained transmission is presently low for India.
Meanwhile, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has also been conducting a serosurvey since last year to understand the risk of Mpox among people, especially those at high risk like HIV patients, in the country.

Tamil Nadu’s Directorate of Public Health (DPH) and Preventive Medicine on Friday directed Airport Health Officers and Port Health Officers to be on high alert, particularly concerning passengers arriving from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African countries.
Other countries have also ramped up efforts to track and curb the spread.