Formerly known as monkeypox, the disease transmits through close contact with an infected person or animal.
Indian authorities announced on Monday that a recently reported mpox case in the Malappuram region in southern India belongs to the new variant, clade 1 strain.
The patient is a 38-year-old man who recently returned from the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in 2022, India has recorded a total of 30 infection cases. However, none of these cases had been of clade 1b prior to this recent case.
The WHO declared a PHEIC in May 2022 amid the spread of mpox in the Americas and Europe. The declaration was lifted in May 2023 as the outbreak subsided. As clade 1b mpox began spreading in Africa this year, the WHO reissued the PHEIC on August 14.
PHEIC is the highest level of public health alert. It was the first time in 15 months that WHO had reissued the mpox PHEIC, which had been lifted in May 2023 after the initial declaration in 2022.
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