Monkeypox patients to isolate for 21 days, keep lesions covered: Govt issues guidelines
1 min read 27 Jul 2022, 06:56 PM ISTMonkeypox cases in India: Twenty-one days of isolation, and keeping lesions fully covered are among the Central government's guidelines for monkeypox patients in India
PremiumTwenty-one days of isolation, wearing masks, following hand hygiene, and keeping lesions fully covered are among the guidelines that the Central government has issued for the monkeypox patients in India. So far, India has logged four monkeypox cases, of them, one was detected in Delhi.
The Union government has also said in its guidelines for monkeypox patients that the patients should wait for the lesions to fully heal. These guidelines have also been issued for the close contacts of monkeypox patients.
In India, Kerala has reported three monkeypox cases and Delhi, the national capital, has seen only one case.
The Central government on Sunday held a high-level meeting after a 34-year-old man tested positive for the monkeypox virus in Delhi.
The man who has tested positive for the monkeypox virus has no history of foreign travel. His samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune where scientists confirmed them positive for monkeypox. He had recently attended a stag party in Manali in Himachal Pradesh recently.
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According to the reports, another suspected case of monkeypox has been admitted to Delhi's Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital and the samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune.
Noida, too, has reported another suspected case of monkeypox.
While India has detected four monkeypox cases, more than 16,000 cases have so far been reported in over 60 countries. As the monkeypox cases continue to increase, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox a global health emergency -- the highest alarm it can sound.
The WHO says monkeypox virus spreads from person to person through close contact with someone who has a monkeypox rash, including through face-to-face, skin-to-skin, mouth-to-mouth, or mouth-to-skin contact, including sexual contact.
Some of the most common symptoms of the monkeypox virus are:
-fever
-headache
-muscle aches
-back pain
-low energy
-swollen lymph nodes
Even as more suspected cases of monkeypox are being detected in India, officials have said that there was no need to panic. One has to stay in isolation for 21 days from the last contact with a monkeypox patient or their contaminated materials, they said.
(With PTI inputs)
