After the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across the globe, the newly-detected monkeypox virus struck the speculations of scientists and researchers over how severe it could be. Detected in over 20 countries, the Indian authorities have also tightened their guidelines for travelers.
The Tamil Nadu health department, in a recent advisory to all the directors of international airports in the state, has said that all international travelers showing symptoms of the monkeypox virus need to be isolated to make sure that it doesn’t cause an outbreak.
In a letter to the directors of the airports in Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchi, Salem, Madurai, and Tuticorin, the department said that travellers landing from international destinations with symptoms like fever, headache, muscle ache, or exhaustion must be isolated and their samples were taken for testing.
The Director of Health Services in the letter said that these samples, such as fluids in vesicles, blood, and sputum, would be sent to the ICMR-NIV laboratory in Pune through the state public health laboratory for PCR tests.
All the overseas travellers with the symptoms listed above need to be isolated at home as soon as they leave the airport, and all the international airport directors have been asked to maintain strict compliance with these rules.
Though the state and Indian government is taking strict measures to make sure that there is no monkeypox outbreak in the country, it must be noted that no case of the virus has been detected in India yet, according to the health ministry.
The Tamil Nadu health department has called upon the health workers to be prepared to deal with the monkeypox disease and to gather proper information on its treatment and prognosis.
As many as 23 countries have reported cases of the monkeypox virus, such as the United States, Australia, Canada, and Europe. No fatalities from the virus have been recorded yet, but not much is known about the severity of this disease.
Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said that they are not sure if the monkeypox virus can be contained, making a complete u-turn from the health agency’s previous statement. Earlier, WHO had said that monkeypox can be contained if all the countries come together.
(With IANS inputs)
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