The State Government has asked health officials to remain on alert and arrange isolation beds in all district hospitals after a seven-year-old girl was detected with symptoms similar to monkeypox in Garhwa.
After the order was issued by Arun Kumar Singh, Additional Chief Secretary, Health Department, an isolation ward has been prepared in Dengue ward of RIMS. RIMS Medical Superintendent Dr Hirendra Birua said that RIMS is also on alert after cases of monkeypox have been reported in some districts of the State.
He said that after receiving the order of the Additional Chief Secretary, a meeting was held with the doctors of Skin, Pediatric, Medicine and PSM departments of RIMS. In the dengue ward, a room has been identified and instructions have been given to prepare a five-bed isolation ward. So that after getting the suspected patients of monkeypox in the state, they can be admitted here and sent to Pune for sample testing.
After case was detected in Garhwa, the samples of the girl were collected and would be sent to the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune for testing.
“A suspected monkeypox case has been found. The girl has been found suffering from fever with a skin rash on her body. Instructions have been given to send her samples to NIV Pune as per the protocol. Samples are also being sent to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS),” said a senior official from the health department. However, in Garhwa case, the girl has no travel history and investigations are on to assess whether her fever and rash were due to any drug allergy or not.
Meanwhile, as per health department directive RIMS, medical colleges and civil surgeons have been asked to make people aware of the symptoms of the viral zoonotic disease as per the guidelines of the central government and the World Health Organization (WHO).
As per health department directive, high-risk people (persons with significant comorbidities and immunocompromised individuals) and those with monkeypox symptoms should be screened at outpatient departments to identify suspected cases.
People with a history of foreign travel should immediately inform their nearest health centres in case of symptoms like fever, headache and body ache within 21 days of their return. As per health department directives all civil surgeons and DSO IDSPs of the state have been instructed to increase surveillance regarding monkeypox.
IDSP's State Epidemiologist Dr Praveen Karna said that monkeypox is a disease similar to smallpox. It is an orthopoxvirus infection. Its duration is usually 7-14 days but it can be as long as 5-21 days. An infected person can spread the disease from 1-2 days before symptoms appear.
