Mpox in India: A day after a suspected patient was confirmed as mpox positive, Delhi Health Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said that that patient is admitted to the LNJP Hospital.
According to the Health Minister, the patient is in stable condition. Reportedly, Bharadwaj conducted a surprise inspection at the hospital earlier in the day to assess its preparations for dealing with cases of mpox and dengue.
“There is one confirmed patient of mpox at LNJP hospital. He has a travel history and is believed that he got infected while traveling abroad. The patient has been isolated in a separate ward. He is in a stable condition,” he said.
The 26-year-old patient, a resident of Haryana’s Hisar, has only genital ulcers and skin rashes but no fever, a health department official said, as quoted by news agency PTI. The patient was kept in the disaster management ward of the hospital, according to a statement from the health department.
Bharadwaj emphasised that there was no need to panic over mpox as it spreads through contact, not through the air. The Union health ministry on Monday said that it was an “isolated case” and there was no immediate risk to the public.
“The individual, a young male who recently travelled from a country experiencing ongoing mpox transmission, is currently isolated at a designated tertiary care isolation facility. The ministry had said that the patient remains clinically stable and has no systemic illness or comorbidities,” the ministry had said. The patient was admitted to the Delhi government-run hospital on Saturday.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) last month declared mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) for the second time in view of its prevalence and spread across many parts of Africa.
While the LNJP has been designated as the nodal facility, two other hospitals are on standby. The LNJP Hospital has a total of 20 isolation rooms for the patients, including 10 for confirmed cases.
The Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital and Baba Saheb Ambedkar will have 10 rooms each for such patients, with five rooms each for suspected cases. The health minister said that the cases of fever have increased a bit but there is nothing to worry about right now.
