State Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao
Following the World Health Organisation (WHO) once again declaring monkeypox as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), Karnataka is gearing up to handle any outbreak of the infectious viral disease. The State’s COVID-19 Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) met on Monday night (August 19) to discuss and advise the government on preparedness.
State Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao, who held a meeting on Monday to take stock of surveillance and other prevention measures, told The Hindu that in the absence of new guidelines by the Union Health Ministry, the State was gearing up to handle the outbreak, if any.
“There is no need to panic as there are no reported cases of monkeypox in India as of now. The Union Health Ministry has announced certain measures including sensitising the health units at all the airports, seaports, and ground crossings. We are also directing all our health officials to be alert and step up surveillance in the districts. Our health staff are being sensitised on early identification, confirmation, and treatment of monkeypox,” he said.
Beds set aside
He said some beds in each of the hospitals run by the Health Department have already been set aside for isolation of dengue and other patients with communicable diseases, the Minister said the same beds can be used to isolate monkeypox cases, if reported.
The monkeypox virus is a slow-mutating DNA virus that is spread through large respiratory droplets and requires prolonged close contact with a patient for transmission. It can also spread through bodily fluids, material from within the skin lesions, and contaminated clothes and linens of an infected person. It can take anywhere between five to 21 days after infection for the symptoms to show up, with the person becoming infectious – having the ability to spread the virus – one to two days before the skin rashes develop till after they fall off. Symptoms include an unexplained rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, body ache, and profound weakness.
Detection process
The virus can be confirmed by the detection of unique sequences of viral DNA either by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and/or sequencing. All the clinical specimens should be transported to NIV, Pune routed through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) network of the respective district, Mr Rao said.
With no guidelines as yet from the Union Health Ministry, sources said the TAC is likely to advise the Health Department to keep its facilities ready to detect, isolate and manage/treat if any case is reported.
In 2022 when the WHO had declared monkeypox as a PHEIC, Karnataka’s TAC recommended stepping up surveillance and setting suspected cases be shifted to designated isolation facilities — Isolation (Epidemic Diseases) Hospital at Indiranagar in Bengaluru and Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru. “Designated isolation facilities in private hospitals should be considered as per requirement,” the TAC had said.
