India said on Monday that an mpox case involving a traveller in the southern state of Kerala was from the fast-spreading clade 1b variant, marking the country’s first recorded case from the new strain.
Manisha Verma, a spokesperson for the health ministry, confirmed the strain after news agency ANI cited official sources as saying that the mpox case reported in Kerala’s Malappuram district last week belonged to clade 1.
The patient is a 38-year-old man who had travelled from the UAE, Kerala authorities had said last week.
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“The man had a fever and rash similar to chickenpox on his body, after which doctor get suspicious and sent sample for testing,” sources told ANI.
India reported its first case of clade 2 strain in Delhi.
Mpox clade 1b spreads rapidly. According to the World Health Organisation, this spreads “mainly through sexual networks and its detection in countries neighbouring the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is especially a public health emergency of international concern (PHIC).”
Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, has been a public health issue in parts of Africa for many years but resurfaced as a global concern in 2022.