Monkeypox infections in India rise to 9, just two days after first infection reported

India witnessed a surge in monkeypox cases as the number rose to nine on Wednesday after a 31-year-old woman tested positive for the virus in New Delhi.

Monkey pox causes flu-like symptoms and skin lesions. About 60 countries where monkeypox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the disease, with confirmed cases exceeding 10,000.

While the southern Indian state of Kerala has reported five cases, the Indian capital has four positive patients, media said.

The country confirmed its first death from monkeypox on Monday (1 August), a young man from the southern state of Kerala, in only the fourth known death from the disease in the current outbreak.

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“We have received 12 samples (of monkey pox) from different states. We have received samples from Delhi, Haryana, Himachal (Pradesh), Bihar and neighboring areas of UP (Uttar Pradesh). Out of these 12, two have tested . positive and both are from Delhi,” said Indian Institute of Medical Sciences Department of Microbiology Professor Dr Lalit Dar.

A security guard stands outside a monkey pox quarantine ward at a government hospital in Hyderabad on July 25, 2022.
(NOAH SEELAM/AFP via Getty Images)

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency on July 23.

He says the monkeypox virus causes a disease with less severe symptoms than smallpox and occurs mainly in central and western Africa. The disease is transmitted from animals to humans.

Person-to-person transmission occurs through contact with body fluids, injuries to the skin or internal mucosal surfaces such as the mouth or throat, respiratory droplets, and contaminated objects.

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The disease is spreading at a time when India is also witnessing a rise in coronavirus cases with 19,893 new cases and 53 deaths in the last 24 hours.