On Monday, the Indian authorities announced the death of a man infected with monkeypox, who had recently returned from the United Arab Emirates, in what may be the first fatal case of the disease in Asia.
• Read also: Second death of a patient with monkeypox in Spain
• Read also: First two deaths from monkeypox outside Africa
The health ministry in the southern Indian state of Kerala said that tests carried out on the 22-year-old victim, who died on July 30 after testing positive for the virus, “show that the man had smallpox. A monkey”.
This is the fourth death linked to this disease outside Africa.
On July 24, the World Health Organization launched the highest level of alert, a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (USPPI) to bolster control of monkeypox, also known as monkeypox.
The Indian victim died a week after being hospitalized upon his return from the United Arab Emirates. It is not yet clear whether the cause of death was monkeypox.
“The young man had no symptoms of monkeypox. “He was taken to hospital with symptoms of encephalitis and fatigue,” Health Minister Vienna Georg said on Sunday. Indian Express.
She said that twenty people identified as being at high risk have been placed under surveillance, including relatives, friends and medical personnel, who may have had contact with the victim.
Spain reported two deaths from monkeypox last week, the first in Europe and Brazil.
However, it is unclear whether monkeypox was the cause of these three deaths. Autopsies are still underway in Spain. In Brazil, authorities claim that the patient who died had other serious illnesses.
India has recorded at least four cases of the disease, the first of which was on July 15 of another man who had returned to Kerala after a trip to the United Arab Emirates.
Nine deaths in the world
The first analyzes carried out on the man who died on Saturday showed that he was carrying a type of virus in West Africa and no further tests have been carried out yet.
According to Kerala’s health ministry, the family did not notify doctors until July 30, the day of the death, of the results of the examination carried out in Dubai on the 19th. And 165 passengers had been on the same flight he had been on since the day of his death. The ministry added that none of them had close contact with the patient.
In total, including India’s announcement, nine deaths have been recorded globally since May, with the first five deaths reported in Africa, where the disease is endemic and was first detected in humans in 1970.
Most of the pollution is concentrated in Europe, where 70% of the 18,000 cases detected since the beginning of May and 25% are in the Americas, according to the Director of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO Regional Office for Europe also expects an increase in the number of deaths associated with monkeypox, even if it stresses that severe complications remain rare and the disease is often treated alone, even without the need for treatment.
The goal should be to “quickly stop the transmission of the virus in Europe and put an end to this pandemic,” said Catherine Smallwood, WHO’s emergency director for Europe.
The first symptoms are a high temperature, swollen lymph nodes, and a rash that looks like chickenpox.
Currently, the World Health Organization maintains that there are no vaccines for everyone, and therefore recommends that priority be given to those most at risk, those who are sick and those who treat or manufacture them.
