'Nothing to panic about...': NIV senior scientist on Monkeypox situation in India

Till now, the country has reported as many as two cases of the viral disease, both from the state of Kerala.

With as many as two cases of Monkeypox being confirmed in India – both from Kerala – a senior scientist of the National Institute of Virology (NIV) said on Tuesday that people should not panic, adding that isolation wards have already been set up across the country to deal with cases of the viral disease.

Health workers inspect passengers arriving from high risk countries for monkeypox symptoms, at Chennai International Airport. (ANI)

“It's a controlled situation with nothing to panic about. For now, we have only two cases. The government is alert, and is monitoring developments very closely,” said Dr Pragya Yadav of the Pune-based institute, speaking to news agency ANI.

Dr Yadav added that the system learned a lot from the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as well. “People are well-trained, they know how to handle specimen and infected patients. Isolation wards are already present across the country. These were set up after a letter was issued by the Ministry of health, as soon as the first case was declared by the World Health Organization (WHO),” she explained.

On Monday, the Union health ministry, in a bid to minimise the risk of Monkeypox cases being ‘imported’ to India, asked all airports and ports to conduct strict screening of passengers arriving from foreign nations.

The directive came just hours after a man from Kerala, who returned to Kannur from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on July 14, tested positive for the infection. The first case was also from the southern state and also on July 14, as another UAE returnee, who travelled to Kollam, tested positive.

Globally, the first Monkeypox case was detected in the UK on May 6 this year, and was traced to an individual with travel links to Nigeria. Thus far, there have been more than 13,000 cases of the infection across the world.