Monkeypox infections in India reach 9, just two days after first reported infection

India witnessed a rise in monkeypox cases as the tally reached nine on Wednesday after a 31-year-old woman tested positive for the virus in New Delhi.

Monkeypox causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions. Around 60 countries in which monkeypox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the disease, with confirmed cases crossing 10,000

While India’s southern Kerala state has reported five cases, the Indian capital has four positive patients, said media reports.

The country confirmed its first monkeypox death on Monday (August 01), a young man in the southern state of Kerala, in what is only the fourth known fatality from the disease in the current outbreak.

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“We have received 12 samples (of monkeypox) from different states. We have received samples from Delhi, Haryana, Himachal (Pradesh), Bihar, and the neighbouring areas of the U.P. (Uttar Pradesh). Out of these 12, two have tested positive and they are both from Delhi,” said Professor, Department Of Microbiology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Dr. Lalit Dar.

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency on July 23.

It says the monkeypox virus causes a disease with less severe symptoms than smallpox and occurs mainly in central and West Africa. The disease is transmitted from animals to humans.

Human-to-human transmission happens through contact with bodily fluids, lesions on the skin or on internal mucosal surfaces, such as in the mouth or throat, respiratory droplets and contaminated objects.

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The disease is spreading at a time when India is also witnessing rising coronavirus cases with 19,893 new cases and 53 deaths being reported in the past 24 hours.