Monkeypox, a viral zoonosis infection posing a major threat in Europe, is slowly spreading in India. So far, the country has reported nine cases and one death, causing the Centre to step up vigil and issue revised guidelines to prevent an outbreak.
What is monkeypox?
Monkeypox is referred to as a zoonotic viral disease caused by the monkeypox virus. The virus is similar to the commonly occurring cowpox and smallpox virus and primarily occurs in Central and West African tropical rainforests.
Monkeypox enters the body through skin lesions and can be transmitted to humans from infected animals via bites, scratches, and direct contact with the body fluids. Human to human transmission mainly occurs through close physical contact.
The A.2 strain
To understand the impact of the monkeypox virus in India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the National Institute of Virology (NIV) conducted an analysis that revealed that the first two cases diagnosed in India- a duo that had traveled from the UAE- were infected with the monkeypox strain A.2.
This A.2 strain happens to be quite different from B.2, the strain causing the terrifying outbreak in Europe. The A.2 strain was discovered in the USA in 2021 and has not been linked to significant clusters.
The foreign returnees from the UAE, a 35 and 31-year-old male, experienced vesicular lesions on the genital area with cervical lymphadenopathy, fever, and myalgia. Their EDTA blood, serum, urine, and lesion samples from multiple sites were collected on the ninth day since the onset of the illness. The complete genome sequence obtained from the skin lesions of cases 1 and 2 revealed 99.91% and 99.96% similarities, respectively, with the MPXV_USA_2022_FL001 West African clade. Researchers think that the West African clade, which is found to be circulating in non-endemic countries, is likely to be less severe.
We are still in the early days of speculating about the impact of the monkeypox virus in India. However, with nine cases and one death in sight, the Centre is keeping a watchful eye and taking every precaution to prevent the virus’s further spread.
