A 22-year-old man, suspected to have contracted Monkeypox, died in Kerala's Thrissur district on Saturday, officials said.
He had returned three days ago from United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is a high-risk area for Monkeypox. Relatives said he was suffering from high fever. Later, red blisters appeared on his body raising serious doubts of Monkeypox, reported Hindustan Times.
Health officials had sent samples of the deceased to the National Institute of Virology's regional centre in Alappuzha for confirmation. Following the death, officials asked the family to cremate the body as per World Health Organization (WHO) protocols.
PTI reported Kerala Health Minister Veena George as saying on Sunday that reasons for the death will be examined. She added that the health department was looking into the cause of the death, noting that the patient was young and did not suffer from any other illness or health problems.
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She said it will also be examined why there was delay in his hospitalisation after he arrived here from UAE on July 21.
The HT reported doctors who treated the patient as saying that his symptoms were similar to monkeypox.
"There were no red marks or blisters when he got admitted. But later such symptoms started appearing on his body. Since he came from the high-risk UAE, he was admitted to an isolation ward,” said one of the doctors requesting anonymity.
The HT further reported a senioe Union governmetn official as noting that of thousands of Monkeypox cases reported across the world, only five deaths have been reported from monkeypox so far.
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Notably, India has reported four confirmed cases of Monkeypox and no death.
George further said, "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 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.
She further 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.
(With PTI inputs)
