A second case of monkeypox has been confirmed in Kerala after a 31-year-old traveller from Dubai arriving in Kannur on Wednesday developed symptoms and swab samples tested positive, State Health Minister Veena George said. The country’s first case of monkeypox was confirmed here on Thursday in a traveller arriving from Sharjah. He is undergoing treatment at the Government Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, where his condition is reported to be stable.

The minister said the second case, too, admitted in the Government Medical College Hospital in Kannur, is stable. Close contacts have been identified and are being monitored. A visiting Central team met the minister and briefed her with ground-level reading of the situation obtained during their three-day tour. The team expressed its satisfaction over control measures adopted by the State so far.

The State Health Department has intensified checks at all international airports. The minister said diagnostic kits for monkeypox will be supplied to all labs in the State. The government runs 28 labs equipped to conduct RT-PCR tests for Covid-19. Initially, kits will be procured from NIV, Pune, and supplied to NIV at Alappuzha, so that tests can be done within the state itself, she added.

Diagnostic kits given

Help desks set up the airports have been directed to send out passengers showing symptoms to centres of isolation for expert treatment. An awareness drive has been launched and ambulances kept on standby to move suspected patients to isolation wards set up in select hospitals in various districts. Control centres have been set up both at the state and district levels.

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