Govt puts five districts on high alert

Health workers screen passengers arriving from abroad for symptoms of monkeypox at Chennai airport on June 3. Pic/AFP

The Kerala government on Friday stepped up vigil to prevent the spread of monkeypox, issuing special alerts to five districts and starting to trace co-passengers, a day after the state reported India's first case of the rare viral infection.

State Health Minister Veena George said special alert has been issued to five districts, as people from Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kottayam were co-passengers of the infected person in the Sharjah-Thiruvananthapuram Indigo flight that landed here on July 12.

Kerala health minister Veena George. Pic/Twitter@mumbaipressclub

There were 164 passengers and six cabin crew on board, the minister said and added that isolation facilities will be set up in all these districts.

She said 11 people who were in the seats next to him are in the high-risk contact list, along with his parents, the drivers of an auto and a taxi he took and a dermatologist from whom he first sought treatment. Health workers are in touch with them and they will be tested in case of any symptoms, she added.

Kerala Health Minister Veena George said there were 164 passengers and six cabin crew on the flight on July 12. Pic/ANI

"Passengers who have travelled in this flight should self-monitor and report to the health officials if they develop any symptoms in 21 days. As the phone numbers of many are not available, they are being traced with the help of the police", George said. Immigration clearance officers and those who handled the patient's baggage at the airport also figure in the surveillance list.

The Union health secretary said, "Patient isolation (until all lesions have resolved and scabs have completely fallen off), protection of ulcers, symptomatic and supportive therapies, continued monitoring and timely treatment of complications remain the key measures to prevent mortality."

Watch out for symptoms: govt

The Union health ministry on Friday released certain guidelines for the management of monkeypox disease. It has asked people to avoid contact with dead or wild animals (rodents, monkeys), and seek medical help in case of symptoms. "It spreads through close contact with lesions, body fluids, prolonged contact with respiratory droplets and contaminated materials such as bedding," official sources told ANI.

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