Govt issues new advisory to states, UTs after first Mpox Clade 1b case

Health Secretary Apurva Chandra on Thursday issued a new advisory to all state and union territory (UT) administrations containing public health actions required to be undertaken to prevent the risk of further spread of Mpox in India.

This comes after India last week reported its first case of the Mpox Clade 1b strain, which triggered the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a public health emergency, in a 38-year-old man from Kerala who had recently returned from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The advisory asks states and UTs to continue undertaking appropriate activities to make communities aware of the disease, its modes of spread, and the need for timely reporting and preventive measures.

Highlighting the readiness of diagnostic testing capability in the country, the advisory stated that 36 labs across India supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and three PCR test kits validated by the Central Drug Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) are readily available.

“Samples from lesions of any patient with suspected symptoms of Mpox should be sent to the designated labs immediately, and for those that test positive, a sample should be sent to ICMR-NIV for genome sequencing to determine the clade,” the advisory added.

Since the WHO declared Mpox, or monkeypox, a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) last month, India has reported two cases — one in Delhi and the other in Kerala.

While the patient in Delhi was found to have the Clade 2 strain, which is not part of the WHO warning, the patient in Kerala was diagnosed with the Clade 1b strain. With this, India also became the third non-African country to have confirmed a case of the Clade 1b strain, after Sweden and Thailand, which have also reported one case each.

Addressing the difference in both strains, Chandra said that while the clinical presentation is similar in both strains, the rate of complications may be higher in Clade 1 compared to Clade 2 infections.

A similar advisory was released by the health secretary earlier this month, asking states and UTs to review their public health preparedness, along with the screening and testing of all suspected cases of Mpox, while asserting that it was closely monitoring the evolving situation.

“The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare shall continue to monitor the situation closely and will extend all requisite support in this regard to states and UTs,” the advisory had stated.