Mpox scare becoming real
- The People's Chronicle Editorial :: August 24, 2024 -

WITH Thailand's Department of Disease Control on Thursday confirming Asia's first known case of Clade 1b, a new but deadlier strain of mpox or monkeypox in a 66-year-old European man, who landed in Bangkok after travelling to an unnamed African country on August 14; it's time for India to heighten its vigilance and surveillance measures as well as screening of travellers entering Indian airports and seaports.

Even if officials of the Union Healthy Ministry have been time and again reassuring the people that the risk of a large-scale outbreak of the viral disease, which spreads mostly through unprotected close physical contact with an infected patient, is significantly low in the country, the fact remains that the infectious mpox virus is today spreading internationally, and more countries, some very far from the initial location of the outbreak in East Africa, have confirmed cases of the new and potentially deadlier strain of mpox with a fatality rate of 3 percent in the past week.

Apart from Thailand, three other countries, namely, Sweden, Philippines and Pakistan, have so far reported mpox cases outside the African continent, where the Clade 1b variant of mpox has been creating havoc in as many as 14 countries.

Although the mpox cases detected in Sweden, Philippines and Pakistan are of the milder Clade 2 variant, confirmation of Asia's first known case of the deadlier Clade 1b strain of mpox in Thailand-should be a matter of concern for India as it ranks third in the total number of tourists that visited Thailand in 2024 till now.

As Raman Gangakhedkar, who is a former scientist and national chair at the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has pointed out, "The way the virus is spreading to different countries it is not easy to stop it from getting into any country, including India, due to high global mobility".

It's true that soon after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the upsurge of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other African countries as a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC)", an alert category used in the past for Ebola outbreaks, Covid-19 and a 2022 mpox surge in Europe; a detailed review of the situation and preparedness had been taken by union minister of health & family welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda in a meeting with senior officials of the Ministry.

The meeting decided to implement necessary precautionary measures to address potential spread of mpox in the country immediately.

These measures include sensitising health units at all airports, seaports, and ground crossings, preparing 32 testing laboratories, and equipping health facilities to detect, isolate, and manage any potential cases.

It is also good to know that the Union health ministry is working on an updated advisory and guidelines on mpox by incorporating suggestions from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), which would include identifying sick patients at the ports of entry; isolation of suspected and confirmed cases; lab tests; symptoms, prevention, reporting of patients to the hospitals; surveillance strategies; community awareness; and hospital infection control measures.

So, one can rest assured of the preparedness of India to fight spread of the viral disease.

As a matter of fact, the country's healthcare system, which has been fortunately strengthened to a large extent after the Covid-pandemic, continuous monitoring and immunization programmes can all work to stop the spread of mpox effectively. Nonetheless, there should be no room for complacency in a country which is still recovering from the impact of Covid-pandemic.

Even if mpox is not the new Covid, as WHO officials have stressed, and authorities know how to control its spread, people still need to be educated and sensitized as the Clade 1b variant of mpox virus is said to be spreading more easily through routine close contact.