First suspected Monkeypox case of Telangana tests negative

TELANGANA: The first suspected case of Monkeypox that was reported in Telangana on July 24 has tested negative, according to the sources.

A 40-year-old resident of Kamareddy with a travel history to Kuwait showed symptoms of Monkeypox on July 24. "The patient was shifted to Fever Hospital in Hyderabad. His samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV) lab, Pune for testing. He has been isolated," informed the Director of Public Health, Telangana. The samples to test for the monkeypox virus were found to be negative.

India has reported four cases of Monkeypox so far. The three cases are from Kerala and one case is from Delhi. In an interview with ANI Dr VK Paul, Member, Niti Aayog said that India is fully prepared and there is no need to panic.

"Our disease surveillance system has been energized even more to investigate such cases. The situation is under control, no reason to worry and panic." "We have to play a responsibility in case there is some individual who has symptoms who should come for diagnosis because this disease has to be represented differently. The individual could be taken care of , we have such systems and restrictions have already been issued, must come forward and report." Said Dr V K paul

The World Health Organisation on Saturday declared Monkeypox a global health emergency. However, the WHO chief Dr Tedros also said that "discrimination could be as harmful as the virus." Recently, Dr Poonam Khetrapal RD WHO South-East Asia also showed concern and said that the cases on Monkeypox are now reported in those countries also where no cases reported before , she said, "Cases of monkeypox are being reported from multiple countries. Many of them have not seen cases of monkeypox before."

"The unexpected appearance of this disease globally and in a wide geographic area indicates that the disease may have been circulating below the detection of the surveillance systems. It is possible that sustained human-to-human transmission through close contact - direct or indirect - remained undetected for a period of time." she said.