E-Paper
‘Intensified vigil, districts on alert’: How Kerala is fighting monkeypox crisis
People from five districts that have been put on alert were co-passengers in the Sharjah-Thiruvananthapuram IndiGo flight that landed in Kerala from the UAE on July 12, and had the infected 35-year-old man on board.
A day after India reported its first monkeypox case in Kerala, the state government on Friday intensified its vigil to prevent the spread of the zoonotic disease by issuing special alerts to as many as five districts.
The move comes after state health minister Veena George held a high-level meeting in Thiruvananthapuram earlier in the day, news agency PTI reported.
The alert has been issued in Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Kottayam, Pathanamthitta, and Alappuzha. These districts have been put under alert because people from there were co-passengers in the Sharjah-Thiruvananthapuram IndiGo flight that landed in Kerala from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on July 12, and had the infected person on board. The flight had 164 passengers and six cabin crew on board.
George said isolation facilities will also be set up in the aforementioned districts.
The 35-year-old infected man, hailing from Kollam district, subjected himself to treatment on the same day he reached Kerala after his close contact in the west Asian nation tested positive for monkeypox, George told HT on Thursday.
Also Read | First monkeypox case reported in India: Symptoms, treatment and vaccines
The minister said the man was referred to the Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, where doctors suspected him of having contracted monkeypox. On Thursday, his samples that were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune for testing, came out positive for the zoonotic disease.
George said the state government has identified 11 persons who sat near the infected man's seat beside some crew members of the flight, adding they are on their primary list now.
A taxi driver, an auto driver and a dermatologist of a private hospital where the infected man sought treatment first, have been quarantined.
The health minister said passengers who travelled on the flight should monitor their health and report to the health officials in case they develop any symptoms of monkeypox in 21 days, the PTI report quoted her as saying.
George said health workers of the southern state are in touch with people who were suspected to have come in contact with the infected man, and if they have fever or other symptoms, they will be tested for Covid-19. She said the workers will be imparted specialist training to combat monkeypox cases.
