By Sudhir Kumar
Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has issued guidelines on the management of Monkeypox disease. The Ministry said, all the clinical specimens should be transported to the laboratory of ICMR-NIV in Pune routed through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme network of the respective district and state. There is no reported case of monkeypox disease in the country as of date.
The guidelines stress surveillance and rapid identification of new cases to reduce the risk of human-to-human transmission. As per the guidelines, contacts should be monitored at least daily for the onset of signs and symptoms for a period of 21 days during the infectious period. The guidelines further explain in detail about raising awareness and educating people about the measures for the Monkeypox virus. It stresses avoiding contact with any material of the sick person, isolation of the infected patients, practicing good hand hygiene, and using appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) while caring for patients.