Mpox Alert: Centre issues advisory to states, orders to intensify screening & contact tracing
Mpox Alert: The Centre issued an advisory to states on Monday following the report of a suspected Mpox case in India. It advised screening and testing of all suspected Mpox or monkeypox patients, isolation of confirmed cases, and contact tracing to "prevent and/or minimise the risk of any case or death due to Mpox in the country".
States and union territories have been asked to identify hospitals that can prepare isolation facilities and be ready to handle suspected and confirmed cases, which will require additional resources.
It is "crucial," the government added, to avoid "undue panic among the masses."
To that purpose, the Health Ministry has advised the dissemination of recommendations on the "management of monkeypox disease" as well as a rigorous surveillance system for tracking suspected cases and contact tracing, similar to the exhaustive actions implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic.
It also included a list of "laboratories operationalised to carry out testing, clinical management protocols, infection prevention and control practices, and risk communication strategies."
The ministry also requested that senior officials conduct a "review of public health preparedness, particularly at the health facility level at the state and district levels."
This should include informing healthcare workers, "especially those working in skin/STD (sexually transmitted disease) clinics, about symptoms, differential diagnoses, and action to be taken following the detection of a Mpox case".
To ensure that information about Mpox and its common symptoms is widely available, the Health Ministry cited the World Health Organization's most recent update, which indicated that the majority of monkeypox patients are men aged 18 to 44, with the most common symptoms being rash (systemic or genital) and fever.
- PTC NEWS
