Monkeypox alert: State asks hospitals to arrange for isolation beds if situation demands

kolkata: In the wake of monkeypox fear across the country, the state Health department has asked all the medical college hospitals and also the Chief Medical Officer of health in the districts to take arrangements so that any emergency situation can be dealt with.

Hospitals have also been directed to make an arrangement of isolation beds if the situation demands so. Although no such cases have been reported in the country, the state government is trying to keep them adequately set up.

Following the alert from the Centre, the state Health department has prepared a blueprint and made necessary arrangements to tackle if there is any such case reported in Bengal.

Health department has already urged the Calcutta Airport authorities to strengthen surveillance and if anybody is found with suspected symptoms at the airport, he/she must be sent to the Beliaghata ID hospital. Necessary arrangements have been made at Beliaghata ID Hospital to handle such patients.

The airport authorities have been asked 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 case is reported. Health department 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.

According to the Centre's advisory, monkeypox is a viral zoonotic disease that occurs primarily in tropical rainforest areas of Central and West Africa and occasionally exported to other regions. Fever, rash and swollen lymph nodes are the symptoms of the disease.

Symptoms last from 2-4 weeks. Severe cases can occur and fatality rate may vary from 1-10 per cent. Monkeypox can be transmitted from animals to humans as well as human to human. A senior Health official, however, assured that there is hardly any possibility for monkeypox virus to get transmitted on a large scale like that of Covid.