Monkeypox alert: Bengal ups ante against any outbreak
kolkata: As a part of preventive measures, the state health department has directed the Chief Medical Officer of health (CMoHs) in the districts to make necessary arrangements to handle if any monkeypox cases are reported.
No such cases have so far been reported in Bengal but the health department is trying to put up adequate infrastructure to combat any possible situation which may arise in the future.
All the hospitals have been asked to be prepared and all the districts have been alerted. All the medical colleges across the state will take some precautionary measures in this regard.
The CMoHs have been urged to keep one hospital in each district ready for treating the patients if such cases are found. Around nine monkeypox cases have been reported in the country so far.
According to the health department's instructions, if a suspected case is reported the matter should be immediately brought to the notice of the district public health wing or to the municipal surveillance officer. State health department has initiated training among doctors and it will hold a series of sensitization workshops among the health workers from various civic bodies.
Senior health department officials held a series of meetings with various civic bodies officials to chalk out plans as to how to tackle if there is any such case reported in the state.
Doctors from various boroughs of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) held meetings. Health department will conduct awareness campaigns using microphones. Posters and banners will also be put at strategic locations under the civic bodies.
Health department has already urged the Calcutta airport authorities to strengthen surveillance and if anybody is found with suspected symptoms at the airport.
If any suspected patient is reported, he/she must be sent to the Beliaghata ID Hospital. Necessary arrangements have been made at Beliaghata ID Hospital to handle such patients.
A setup has also been made ready at the School of Tropical Medicine. The airport authorities have been urged to share the details of a flyer if he/she is found to have suffered from fever, headache, and rashes in the body. Contract tracing would be done if any suspected case is reported.
Health department already issued instructions saying that in case a suspected patient is detected; his/her skin lesions, vesicular fluid and pustules, and dry crust may be sent immediately to the Institute of Virology in Pune.
