New Delhi: The concern of people in India including in various countries of the world regarding the monkeypox virus has started deepening. In the national capital Delhi, a 34-year-old man was found infected with monkeypox on Sunday, after which the total number of patients in India increased to four. However, experts say that people do not need to panic about this. Sanjay Rai, Professor of Community Medicine at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the capital Delhi, says that monkeypox is neither fatal nor highly contagious. You just need to be a little careful about this.
Doctor Rai also told that people who have been vaccinated against smallpox are not more at risk from this virus. He says that the smallpox vaccine also gives protection from this disease. He says, ‘Most people over the age of 45 in India are vaccinated against smallpox. In such a situation, this vaccine will also protect them from monkeypox.’ He says that at one time the mortality rate in smallpox was 30 percent, whereas, in the case of monkeypox, the death rate has been seen so far as only two to three percent.
Along with this, he said that people below the age of 45 whose immune system is weak due for some reason, need to take some precautions. Doctor Rai also says that this disease is not new, but it is 50 years old. He says that in the 1970s, this disease was first found in humans in the African country of Congo, after which its infection has spread to many countries.
This is how the monkeypox virus spreads
Monkeypox virus spreads to humans through direct or indirect contact with an infected animal. This infection spreads from person to person through contact with the infected skin and small droplets coming out of the nose or mouth while exhaling.
More than 16 thousand cases reported worldwide
Globally, more than 16,000 cases of monkeypox have been reported in 75 countries and five people have died due to this infection. The World Health Organization (WHO) had said that the outbreak of monkeypox in more than 70 countries is an ‘extraordinary’ situation and it is now a global emergency.
