India has confirmed its first monkeypox death, a young man in the southern state of Kerala, in what is only the fourth known death from the disease in the current outbreak.
The death, reported on Monday, is the first in Asia. Last week, Spain reported two monkeypox-related deaths and Brazil its first. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global health emergency on July 23.
The 22-year-old Indian man died on Saturday, Kerala’s revenue minister told reporters, adding that the government had isolated 21 people who had come in contact with him.
“The person reached Kerala on July 21 but visited a hospital only on July 26 when he displayed fatigue and fever,” Minister K Rajan said, adding that there was no reason to panic as none of the primary contacts was showing symptoms.
India’s federal health ministry had no comment on the death, except for saying that the government had formed a task force of senior officials to monitor monkeypox cases in the country, where local media have reported at least five infections.
The WHO said late last month that 78 countries had reported more than 18,000 cases of monkeypox, the majority in Europe.
Credit: Aljazeera
