Thrissur (Kerala): A22-year-old youth died in Kerala allegedly due to monkeypox making it the first suspected death due to the virus in India. The youth, a native of Punniyoor in Thrissur, passed away at a hospital in Thrissur on Saturday. He had returned from the UAE on July 21 where he had tested positive for the virus, according to reports.
The state health department has sent his samples to the Kerala unit of the National Institute of Virology in Alappuzha. The department has asked the district health officials to create a route map of his trip ever since the youth landed in his hometown. Sources in the health department said that they were waiting for the report from the virology lab at Alappuzha to confirm the disease.
If found positive, the swab samples would be sent to National Virology Lab, Pune for further testing. The state health minister's office will announce the result of the lab test. The health department has also called upon those with whom he was in touch after his arrival in India from a middle eastern country to isolate and monitor them.
The sources said that the youth after reaching home on July 22 had played football along with his friends, and so all of them have been asked to go in isolation after the youth was detected with the disease. On July 26, he developed a fever and sought treatment at a local hospital. He was shifted to another hospital where he had to be put on life support.
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Kerala Health Minister Veena George said that the government will examine the reasons behind the death. The health minister said that the patient was young, did not suffer from any other illness or health problems and therefore, the health department was looking into the cause of his death. She said they will also be examining why there was delay in his hospitalisation after he arrived here from UAE on July 21.
"This particular variant of monkeypox is not as highly virulent or contagious like COVID-19, but it does spread. Comparatively, the mortality rate of this variant is low. Therefore, we will examine why the 22-year-old man died in this particular case as he had no other illness or health problems," the minister told the media. Since this variant of monkeypox does spread, therefore, all necessary measures have to be taken and have been taken to prevent the same, she added.
The minister also said that there were no studies available about this particular variant from other countries where the disease has been detected and thus, Kerala was carrying out a study on it. According to WHO, monkeypox is a viral zoonosis (a virus transmitted to humans from animals), with symptoms similar to those seen in the past in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe.
With the eradication of smallpox in 1980 and subsequent cessation of smallpox vaccination, monkeypox has emerged as the most important orthopoxvirus for public health. India has so far confirmed four cases of monkeypox, three of them in Kerala.
