21-day isolation, says Centre's guidelines for monkeypox patients

a 21day isolation wearing masks following hand hygiene keeping lesions fully covered and waiting for those to fully heal are among the guidelines by the Central government for monkeypox patients and their contactsThe national capital has reported one confirmed case of monkeypox taking the total number of such patients in the country to fourTill now 14 contacts of Delhis first monkeypox patient have been identified and none of them has shown symptoms sources said adding one of the contacts had complained of body ache but he is doing fine now and has no symptomsAnother suspected case has been admitted to the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash LNJP Hospital in Delhi and the samples have been sent to the National Institute of Virology PuneOfficials however said there is no need to panic One has to stay in isolation for 21 days from the last contact with a monkeypox patient or their contaminated materials they saidMonkeypox is a viral zoonosis that gets transmitted to humans from animals with symptoms similar to those seen in smallpox patients albeit clinically less severeAlso Read Suspected monkeypox case in NoidaBecause of the recent developments the Centre issued guidelines for monkeypox management The Delhi government has directed its hospitals and 11 revenue districts to follow the guidelinesThe Centres guidelines state that health workers who have unprotected exposure to monkeypox patients or possibly contaminated materials need not be excluded from duty if asymptomatic but should undergo surveillance for symptoms for 21 daysThe infected person should wear a tripleply mask while the skin lesions should be covered to the best extent possible to minimise the risk of contact with others according to the guidelinesIt stated that patients should remain in isolation until all lesions have healed and the scabs have completely fallen offExplaining the process of identifying a contact an official said a person who comes in contact with an infected person through facetoface exposure direct physical contact or comes in contact with contaminated materials such as clothing or bedding is identified as a primary contactDistrict surveillance teams ask contacts to selfmonitor their symptoms and stay in touch with them Preferably the contacts should isolate themselves in separate rooms but they can also stay in the same room They should ideally wear a mask and follow hand hygiene and social distancing norms an official saidThe official also said the asymptomatic contacts should not donate blood cells tissues organs or semen while under surveillanceMonkeypox typically manifests itself with fever headache rashes for up to three weeks sore throat cough and swollen lymph nodesThe symptoms include lesions which usually begin within one to three days of the onset of fever last for around two to four weeks and are often described as painful until the healing phase when they turn itchyIn May this year multiple cases of monkeypox were identified in several nonendemic countries Globally over 16000 cases of monkeypox have now been reported from 75 countries and there have been five deaths so far due to the outbreak The World Health Organisation WHO has declared monkeypox a global public health emergency of international concernThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever