Kerala: First Monkeypox Patient In India Discharged From Hospital, Says Health Minister Veena George

The government has traced out his primary contacts and they have also tested negative, said minister Veena George

Kerala Health Minister Veena George.

Source : ANI file

The first reported monkeypox patient in the country, a resident of Kerala's Kollam, was discharged from hospital on Saturday (July 30), said state health minister Veena George. Before testing positive for monkeypox, he has a travel history to UAE. The 35-year-old man from Kollam was treated in 17 days at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College and he is stable, said the health minister.

The government has traced out his primary contacts and they have also tested negative, said minister Veena George.

Kerala | First reported Monkeypox patient in the country discharged (on July 30). The 35-year-old male UAE returnee from Kollam was treated in 17 days at Thiruvananthapuram Medical College; he's stable. His primary contacts also tested negative: State Health Minister Veena George pic.twitter.com/m0H3nfQAMq

— ANI (@ANI) July 31, 2022

India so far reported four confirmed monkeypox cases -- three from Kerala and one from Delhi. On Saturday, there were reports that a suspected case of monkeypox was found in Himachal Pradesh's Solan.

First Two monkeypox Cases Not Linked To Europe

Meanwhile, the genome sequencing of the first two cases, which were detected in Kerala, suggested that they are different from that of genomes from the major outbreak in Europe and the rest of the world, that belonged to B.1 lineage. The recent genome sequencing reports of the first two cases in India showed that they belong to a small cluster A.2.

“It is too early to provide any detail about the two variants of monkeypox infection, that is, A.2 and B.1. The samples that we had submitted from Kerala are falling under A.2 strain. Studying about samples and behavior of mutations will take some time," Dr Pragya Yadav, a senior scientist at NIV Pune, said, as quoted by Hindustan Times.

How Does Monkeypox Transmit?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines, monkeypox is transmitted through close contact with persons or animals, that are infected with the virus. The monkeypox symptoms in an infected person lasts for two to four weeks and it is a self-limited disease, said the world health body.