Mpox in India: ‘No need to panic, as chances of Covid-like pandemic is minimal’

New Delhi, Sep 09: Amid one suspected case of Mpox detected in India, health experts on Monday advised not to panic as the monkeypox virus (MPXV) has minimal pandemic potential.

The government on Sunday informed a suspected case of Mpox in a young male patient in the country, who has been isolated in a designated hospital and is under investigation.

The patient recently travelled from a country currently experiencing Mpox transmission. "The patient has been isolated in a designated hospital and is currently stable," said the ministry.

“There is no need to panic. While fatality remains high, transmission is possible only among close contacts,” Dr. Harshal R Salve, Additional professor, centre for community medicine at AIIMS, New Delhi, told IANS.

“Subliminal infections are all minimal, hence chances of widespread pandemic with monkeypox is minimal,” he added.

Mpox is a viral disease identified as fever, rash, and lymphadenopathy -- a condition that causes lymph nodes to swell or become abnormally shaped or sized. It is a self-limiting disease and patients recover within 4 weeks, Salve said.

The suspected case of Mpox in India comes amidst a global outbreak that has spread to about 13 countries in Africa, forcing the WHO to declare it a global health emergency. The outbreak is driven majorly by a more deadly strain -- Clade 1b. Outside of Africa, Clade 1b has to date caused one case each in Sweden and Thailand.

It is immediately not clear whether the suspected patient in India is linked to the more deadly strain of Mpox.

“With the government’s declaration of the first suspected case of Mpox, everybody is worried, but there is no need to panic. As the infection is being transmitted only through sexual or intimate contact, it will not become a big problem like Covid-19,” Dr. Ishwar Gilada, a noted HIV expert, told IANS.

However, he stressed the need to “educate and train the medical community for managing, diagnosing and detecting Mpox properly. And to increase the effectiveness of laboratories in number and their workload”.

Gilada, a Consultant in HIV/STDs, Unison Medicare and Research Centre, Mumbai, urged to start manufacturing the Mpox vaccine, which may not only help India but also low and middle-income countries.

He also called on to “vaccinate people which are vulnerable to Mpox with smallpox vaccine on priority”.

Salve said that MPXV is spread among humans by respiratory droplets and contact with the body fluids of patients. Hospital surveillance and isolation of cases remain the main interventions for the prevention and spread of Mpox.

Meanwhile, the Centre on Monday advised the states and union territories to screen, test, and trace contact of all suspect Mpox cases.

The states and UTs were also advised to identify isolation facilities in hospitals for both suspect and confirmed patients.

"No new case of Mpox has been reported in India in the current outbreak, and none of the samples in suspected cases have tested positive," said Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra. He also emphasised the need to stay alert.

Last week, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) approved an indigenously developed RT-PCR test for the deadly infectious disease.

The IMDX Monkeypox Detection RT-PCR Assay, developed by Siemens Healthineers delivers results in just 40 minutes, significantly faster than traditional methods (which take 1-2 hours). This may help reduce the turnaround time for reporting, leading to quicker responses.