Monkeypox virus: 3rd case detected in Delhi, 8 in India so far

A Nigerian man living in the national capital has tested positive for the monkeypox virus, taking the tally of total cases in Delhi to three, official sources told news agency ANI on Tuesday. With this, the caseload of monkeypox virus in India has likely climbed to 8.

Earlier today, Delhi's first monkeypox patient was discharged from the LNJP Hospital. The 34-year-old man, a resident of west Delhi, had tested positive last month. Fourteen of his contacts, including the doctor who first treated him, were quarantined but none of them developed symptoms, officials said.

Meanwhile, the condition of the second monkeypox patient in the city, a Nigerian national, is stable.


He has fever, skin eruptions and blisters and is being monitored by doctors at the Delhi government-run LNJP Hospital, the nodal hospital for treatment of the infection, they said.

Earlier today, Kerala reported their fifth case of the virus. A 30-year-old man, who came to Kerala from UAE last month, has tested positive for monkeypox.

The state government, on Monday, had confirmed that the 22-year-old man, who died on July 30, tested positive for monkeypox making the fatality the first such one in the country.

According to the World Health Organisation, 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.

Some of the most common symptoms of monkeypox previously reported - acute headache, fever, skin rashes or lesions/blisters on the skin, macules (small non-elevated skin patches) to papules (elevated solid patches), exhaustion, chills and swelling of the lymph gland in the armpit, neck, and groin, muscle aches, backaches, Dr Subrata Das, Senior Consultant - Internal Medicine and Diabetology at Sakra World Hospital said.