Mpox: India enhances precautions, holds high-level meeting – 10 things to know

As the World Health Organization (WHO) has again declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern, the government held a high-level meeting on Sunday to review preparedness for mpox.

Mpox outbreak: 10 things to know

• Prime Minister's Principal Secretary Pramod Kumar Mishra on Sunday chaired a high-level meeting to review the preparedness for monkeypox amid renewed surveillance for prompt detection.

• According to a statement, there is no reported case of mpox in India presently. As per the current assessment, the risk of a large outbreak with sustained transmission is low.

• The government has decided to sensitise the health units at airports, seaports, and ground crossings, prepare the testing laboratories, and gear up health facilities to detect, isolate, and manage any cases that are put in place.

• The health ministry said in a statement that since WHO first declared the outbreak a public health emergency in 2022, 30 cases have been detected in India, with the last case reported this March.

• As per an earlier statement from WHO, over 99,000 cases and 208 deaths have been reported from 116 nations since 2022.

• According to WHO, mpox is a viral illness, and its symptoms include skin rash or mucosal lesions accompanied by headache, fever, muscle aches, low energy, back pain and swollen lymph nodes.

• Mpox can be transmitted to humans through physical contact with an infectious person, contaminated materials, or infected animals.

• Infected people can pass the disease to others until all sores are healed and a new skin layer is formed.

• Mpox, as per WHO, is treated with supportive care. It lasts between two and four weeks. Certain vaccines and therapeutics used for smallpox can be utilised for monkeypox in some circumstances.

• One can avoid mpox by preventinf physical contact with the person with mpox.