‘Monkeypox not a new disease’: Health minister allays fears in Parliament

New Delhi, Aug 02: Union health minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya on Tuesday allayed concerns in Parliament shortly after India registered its seventh case of monkeypox with Kerala reporting a new case, taking the state tally to five.

Assuring that India was taking a step-by-step approach, Dr Mandaviya said the disease "is not new". "We are implementing best of the learnings that were gained due to coronavirus," he asserted, adding that "there was no need to fear the virus." "Awareness campaigns are being run by the government".

"Monkeypox is not a new disease in India and in the world. Since 1970, a lot of cases have been seen in the world from Africa. The WHO (World Health Organization) has paid special attention to this. Monitoring has started in India also," he said.

"When cases started appearing in the world, India had already started preparations. Before the first case in Kerala, we had issued guidelines to all the states. We have written to the governments at the international level that the screening report of the travelers should also be sent to us," the union health minister told Rajya Sabha.

"On the basis of the observations of the task force, we will assess and study the further action to be taken. If the state government of Kerala needs any kind of help from the Central government, it will be given. Also, an expert team of the Central government is guiding the state government from time to time," he said.

The virus, which was earlier confined primarily to Africa, has been reported from at least 75 countries and territories this year. The WHO had recently declared a public health emergency. More than 22,000 cases have been registered globally.