India has rather unfortunately not been able to avoid the scourge of monkeypox. Kerala has been afflicted, and very pertinently has the Union ministry of health alerted all states to enhance surveillance in view of the potentially catastrophic outbreak in the state’s Kollam district. It must be conceded that states across the country have been alerted to tighten surveillance and preparedness to detect and contain the infection, whose source ought now to be detected with urgent dispatch. The National Institute of Virology in Pune has confirmed the infection in a person who had recently returned from the United Arab Emirates. Accordingly, a central team has been sent to Kerala to investigate the case and support public health investigation. Health authorities in Kerala have admitted the patient to a hospital after he displayed symptoms, according to Veena George, Health minister of the lush maritime state. Going by the minister’s version, the patient, while abroad, had been in close contact with a monkeypox patient.

The administration in Thiruvananthapuram, helmed by chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, ought now to be riveted to the source, the symptoms and the possible antidote. The CPI-M needs the support of the state’s dissensionriven party and the BJP administration at the Centre, if action as concerted as it must be corrective is to be initiated. In the period between January 1 and July 4 this year, the World Health Organisation has documented over 6,000 monkey-pox cases, as confirmed by laboratories. No less tragically, there have been three deaths in the 59 countries that were surveyed. India direly cries out for WHO’s assistance. Researchers are trying to grasp what has triggered the outbreak, as global as it is unprecedented. According to WHO’s readout on 7 July, “this is the first time local transmission of monkeypox has been reported in newly affected countries without epidemiological links to countries that have previously reported monkeypox in west or central Africa.” Monkeypox is a viral disease with symptoms similar to smallpox. The patient suffers from rash and blisters ~ not invariably with flu-like symptoms ~ but with less severity. Experts have suggested that monkeypox is potentially easier to contain than Covid-19 because it spreads from person to person through directed contact with the rash, scabs or body fluids, whereas Covid-19 spreads through the air.

States have been directed by the Union health ministry to undertake key public health measures for early detection and rapid isolation of suspected or confirmed cases. This is essentially a reiteration of the guidelines that had been formulated on May 31. The directive has also underlined the need for preventive strategies, prompt reporting of symptoms and isolation and case management. The monkeypox virus is an animal virus. However, scientists in Portugal had reported that mutations might indicate what they call “accelerated evolution” and possible adaptation to humans. The short point must be that public health is in crisis.