India's first case of monkeypox completely cured, says Kerala's Health Minister Veena George

Kerala: Kerala Health Minister Veena George on Saturday informed that India's first monkeypox patient from Kollam has been completely cured. The 35-year-old man was admitted to the Government Medical College in Thiruvananthapuram. The patient is set to be discharged later in the day. "All samples were negative twice. The patient is physically and mentally healthy. The skin bumps are completely cured. He will be discharged today," Kerala's Health Minister said. She also noted that the test results of the primary contacts of the patient also tested negative.

Veena George also noted that since it was the first case of monkeypox in India, the tests were conducted twice at an interval of 72 hours as per the directions of the National Institute of Virology (NIV). The other two patients of monkeypox in Kerala are reported to be in stable condition. Notably, 4 cases of monkeypox have been detected in India so far. While 3 cases were reported from Kerela, one positive case was found in Delhi.

The first case was detected in Kerala's Kollam after a man who arrived from the UAE tested positive on July 14. The second case of monkeypox was reported in a 31-year-old Dubai-returned man. The third case was recorded on July 22 in a resident of Malappuram who arrived in the state on July 6 and started showing symptoms from July 13. The fourth case was detected in a man from Delhi with no history of foreign travel.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared monkeypox a 'global health emergency' on July 23. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that 'we have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly, through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria in the International Health Regulations.' "For all of these reasons, I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern," he said.