New Delhi, Aug 26 : Out of five cases confirmed of monkeypox in the capital city of India Three had a evidence of heterosexual contacts within the first 21 days of the onset of symptoms, while two did not have contact, as revealed in an analysis of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). “Cases 2 3 and 5 shared the same history of heterosexual relations within the first 21 days of the onset of symptoms that were not caused by the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The case 1 and 4 been denied sexual contact.All the cases denied having a history of the same sex contact, or bisexual relationship,” the ICMR study concluded.
The ICMR report outlines the five instances of human monkeypox that were detected in India without any history of international travel.
The evaluation of the kinetics of viral infection in the follow-up of cases indicates that there is a presence of the viral DNA from 5-24 POD in the lesion specimens as compared to the other specimens.
The presence of high levels of viral load in the lesion specimens of the cases indicates it to be the best specimen type to detect of MPXV DNA.
The report also revealed that the patients did not mention any the history of travel to another country in the last month of the date of the onset of symptoms.The Case-5 had reported a an account of sexual contact with an male partner who had similar lesions seven days prior to the the onset of symptoms according to the ICMR study found.
The confirmed cases of monkeypox occurred between 5-14 days after the day of onset (POD) of illness.
Of the five cases three patients were male and two female with the mean age of 31.2 years.They were diagnosed with moderate to mild intermittent fever of a moderate to high grade with myalgia.
Five of the cases were diagnosed with mild to moderate intermittent fever, myalgia, and lesions on the genitals lower limbs, groins, the upper limb and the trunk.
Four cases had non-tender firm lymphadenopathy.No other problems or sexually transmitted infections were noted in these cases, except for HBV in one case.
All of the cases were minor and had a quick recovery.
The clinical samples of real-time PCR-confirmed MPXV cases (n 5) from Delhi were collected consecutively every fourth day following isolation and sent to Biosafety level 4 facility of the ICMR-National Institute of Virology, Pune, for the study.
The cases were followed (except the case 5) until the lesions healed and the scabs gone.The specimens comprised of oropharyngeal (OPS) and nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS), EDTA blood and urine and lesion samples taken from multiple locations (lesion fluid roof base, lesion base and the crust) were analyzed to determine the kinetics of viral infection of MPXV by using Real time PCR.
The study was endorsed by the Institutional Human Ethics Committee of the ICMR-NIV, Pune, India under the project ‘Providing support for the diagnosis of sample referrals of viral hemorrhagic fever as well as other unknown causes and outbreak investigations’.
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