BENGALURU: A 40-year-old man from Karkala, Udupi district, has tested positive for monkeypox (Mpox), marking the first case reported in Karnataka this year.
Health department officials confirmed that the patient, who has a 19-year work history in Dubai, arrived in Mangalore on January 17. Following the development of fever and rashes, he was isolated at a private healthcare facility.
He was tested at BMC Bangalore, with subsequent confirmation by the National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune.
Harsh Gupta, principal secretary of the health and family welfare department, Karnataka, confirmed the patient’s condition as stable. “Mpox is a mild viral disease. It is self-limiting, and there is no cause for concern. Mpox spreads through very close and intimate contact. The infectivity of the disease is not as severe as that of Covid,” said Harsh Gupta.
Contact tracing identified 20 primary contacts, including the patient’s wife, who accompanied him from the airport to the hospital. All contacts have been instructed to maintain self-isolation as a precautionary measure.
Dr Ansar Ahmed, project director of the Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP), explained that Mpox is a viral zoonotic illness that can spread through bites or scratches from infected animals such as monkeys, rats, or squirrels, or through handling bush meat. He added that transmission can also occur through close contact with infected pets.
Dr Ahmed further noted, “Treatment focuses on symptom management, and isolation of confirmed cases remains essential to curbing transmission.”
Common symptoms include fever, headache, muscle aches, exhaustion, chills, sore throat, and cough. “Detecting Mpox entails the clinical evaluation of the cases and identifying the virus through laboratory tests, such as PCR testing of lesion samples. Quick detection is very important to prevent complications and stop transmission. Most cases are resolved with supportive care management, and isolation of confirmed cases is the key,” said Dr Swati Rajagopal, consultant in infectious disease and travel medicine at Aster CMI Hospital, Bengaluru.
WHO recommends vaccination for individuals with increased exposure risk due to their occupation or specific circumstances. Healthcare professionals also advise at-risk travelers to consider immunization based on a medical assessment.