First mpox case in India stable, isolated at Delhi hospital

India’s first mpox patient (earlier monkeypox), diagnosed with the disease on Monday, is currently isolated at a special facility at Delhi’s Lok Nayak Hospital and is undergoing treatment, health minister Saurabh Bharadwaj said on Tuesday.
The 26-year-old patient from Haryana’s Hisar was admitted to the hospital on Saturday, and doctors confirmed the diagnosis on Monday. The Union ministry of health and family welfare said that it was an isolated case and there was no immediate risk to public at large.
“The man recently travelled from a country experiencing the ongoing mpox transmission and is currently isolated at a designated tertiary care facility. The patient remains clinically stable and is without any systemic illness or comorbidities,” the health ministry said in a statement on Monday.
Bharadwaj conducted a surprise inspection of the hospital on Tuesday to assess preparations for dealing with dengue and mpox. The minister stressed that there remains no need to panic over a case having been reported in the city as the disease is only transmitted through contact.
“It spreads through contact, not through the air,” he said.
On August 14, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) for the second time in the past two years.
While Lok Nayak hospital has been designated as the nodal facility, two other hospitals are on standby.
The Lok Nayak hospital has 20 isolation rooms, out of which 10 are for suspected cases and the remaining for confirmed mpox patients.
The Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) hospital and Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospital have five rooms each for suspected mpox cases and five each for confirmed ones.
Among the central government hospitals in the city, Safdarjung and All India Institute of Medical Sciences have also kept wards ready to isolate suspected and confirmed cases of the disease.
“Surprise inspections will be conducted in other hospitals as well so all required facilities are available in these places if the need arises,” the minister said on Tuesday.