Kerala reported the second monkeypox (Mpox) case after a 29-year-old man, who returned from the UAE, tested positive for the disease in Ernakulam, confirmed Kerala health minister Veena George on Friday.
“He had recently arrived in the state from abroad with symptoms. He is currently admitted to a private hospital in Kochi and is stable,” George told reporters.
It comes after the state reported its first Mpox case on September 18, when the state health department informed a 38-year-old man from Malappuram who also returned from the UAE tested positive for the disease.
He was admitted to the Government Medical Hospital in Manjery for medical treatment and is currently stable, said health officials confirming that the variant of Mpox found in the 38-year-old man was ‘clade 1b’, a highly transmissible strain currently linked to the outbreak in Africa and other countries.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the disease, caused by monkeypox virus (MPXV), a public health emergency in Africa in August.
The United Nations body said the monkeypox virus is an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus of the Orthopoxvirus genus and has two distinct clades.
The global outbreak of ‘clade 1b’ which began in 2022 continues to date. The infection spreads from person to person, especially through close contact. The common symptoms of the disease are headache, fever, sore throat, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes.
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