India reports first monkeypox death; 22-year-old Kerala man had tested positive in UAE

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, August 1

Kerala government on Monday confirmed India’s first monkeypox death, a 22-year-old male who returned from the UAE on July 22, was hospitalised on July 27 and died on July 30.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said the National Institute of Virology, Pune, had confirmed that the patient was positive for monkeypox and it was a West African variant.

NIV Pune sources told The Tribune that the deceased also had encephalitis and seizures that come with it.

Kerala has isolated 20 contacts of the deceased, as per protocol.

The CM has also ordered a high-level probe into the case by a medical board.

State health minister Veena George added that although the patient had tested positive for monkeypox in UAE on July 19, the family disclosed his status only on July 30.

There, however, remain question marks on how the patient reached Kerala without detection of his condition since he was already positive for the disease.

The Kerala monkeypox death, India’s first, would likely also be the world’s only fourth death from the virus outside of Africa.

Of the three deaths previously—one in Brazil and two in Spain—two patients reported encephalitis and seizures much like the Kerala male who died.

The health ministry, meanwhile, set up a taskforce to advise it on the matter.

India so far has six confirmed cases of the virus and one death as of today.

The deceased was admitted to a private hospital in Thrissur.

Early studies on the disease have shown 98 pc cases among gay and bisexual men although human-to-human transmission can happen through contact with bodily fluids, lesions on the skin or internal mucosal surfaces, such as in the mouth or throat, respiratory droplets and contaminated objects.

Monkeypox virus is an orthopoxvirus that causes a disease with symptoms similar, but less severe, to smallpox.

While smallpox was eradicated in 1980, monkeypox continues to occur in central and west Africa. Monkeypox is a zoonosis, meaning a disease transmitted from animals to humans. Cases are often found close to tropical rainforests where there are animals that carry the virus.