Monkeypox-infected Delhi man stable, had painful lesions: Sources

NEW DELHI: The condition of the 34-year-old man from Delhi, the first in the city to contract monkeypox, is ''stable'' though he had painful lesions, official sources said on Sunday.

A resident of west Delhi with no history of foreign travel, he was isolated at the city government-run Lok Nayak Jayaprakash (LNJP) Hospital here around three days ago after he showed symptoms of the disease.

''The patient is in a stable condition. Efforts are on by surveillance teams to trace other people he may have come in contact with. The patient had painful lesions, which is one of the symptoms of monkeypox. We also analysed his condition and ruled out several other ailments,'' an official source told PTI.

The person has no history of foreign travel, but he did travel domestically. However, the source from where he may have contracted the infection is not immediately known, they said, adding, there is no need to panic.

''Covid is highly transmissible, and a person even standing near an infected person can contract it via sneezing and droplets. Monkeypox is also a communicable disease, but if proper distance is maintained and people wear mask, it won't spread that fast. So, I would urge people to follow all safety protocols as they were doing to keep COVID-19 at bay,'' the source said.

The Delhi man is the fourth reported cases of monkeypox in the country. Three cases of monkeypox had earlier been reported from Kerala.

''We checked for several other ailments before zeroing in on monkeypox. So, we checked for lymphadenopathy as it happens in chickenpox, as also for herpes, among other diseases,'' the source said.

Lymphadenopathy is a medical term that refers to the swelling of lymph nodes.

A isolation ward for monkeypox cases has been set up in a section of the seventh floor of the Emergency Department of the 2,000-bed hospital here, the sources said.

The Delhi government had recently made the LNJP Hospital the nodal centre for management of monkeypox, soon after the first case of the rare viral infection was reported in the country.

The city government-run hospital has been the nerve centre of Delhi's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic since its outbreak here in March 2020.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal tweeted on Sunday: ''Our best team is on the case to prevent the spread and protect Delhiites.'' Earlier in the day, Union Health Ministry officials said, the 34-year-old man's samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) Pune on Saturday which came out positive.

He is presently recovering at the designated isolation centre at the Lok Nayak Hospital. The close contacts of the case have been identified and are under quarantine in accordance with the Ministry of Health's guidelines, they said.

The WHO had on Saturday declared monkeypox as a global public health emergency of international concern.

Monkeypox virus is transmitted from infected animals to humans via indirect or direct contact. Human-to-human transmission can occur through direct contact with infectious skin or lesions, including face-to-face, skin-to-skin, and respiratory droplets. Globally, over 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported from 75 countries and there have been five deaths so far due to the outbreak.

Monkeypox typically presents with fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes and may lead to a range of medical complications.

It is usually a self-limited disease with the symptoms lasting from two to four weeks.