First suspected case of monkeypox reported

• Five-year-old child victim; Health Department on high alert
• Samples sent to Bengaluru for tests; contact tracing begins

By M.T. Yogesh Kumar

Mysore/Mysuru: Four months after India’s first monkeypox case was detected in Kerala’s Kollam district, Mysuru’s first suspected case surfaced last evening from K.R. Nagar. A five-year-old child has been reportedly infected and the child’s identity has been kept confidential. The child is under watch and samples have been sent to a laboratory in Bengaluru last night and the results are awaited.

The child’s health is said to be stable and the Health Department is on high alert and the process to identify how the child got the disease is on.  Contact tracing has been initiated to screen whoever was in contact with the child.

Monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease with symptoms similar to smallpox, although with less clinical severity. It is a self-limiting disease with a low fatality rate.

Symptoms begin with a fever and then skin rash. Monkeypox rash often first appears on face, hands or feet and then spreads to other parts of the body. The monkeypox virus causes monkeypox and the virus spreads through close contact with an infected animal or person.

The infected child was brought from K.R. Nagar to a private childcare clinic last evening and the paediatricians there saw boils and rashes on the child’s body. They immediately alerted the District Health Officer (DHO) Dr. K.H. Prasad who rushed to the spot and examined the child. Samples were collected and sent to a laboratory in Bengaluru for tests and the results are expected to come today evening.

Speaking to Star of Mysore this morning, the DHO said that by the looks of the rashes and boils on the child’s body, it looks like a monkeypox infection. “There is no need to panic as the Health Department has taken all precautions. There is a separate set of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to be followed in such cases and we are following them. We are trying to identify the source of the disease and also the process of contact tracing is on,” he added.

“The child’s health is our priority now and we have spoken to the parents to make them aware of the situation. All hospitals, clinics and paediatricians operating from Mysuru have been directed to inform the DHO Office in case any such infections come to their notice. Parents have to physically examine their children and families must be aware of symptoms so that patients can be treated without social stigma,” Dr. Prasad added.