India confirms first case of fast-spreading mpox variant that sparked global warning

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

The Indian health ministry confirmed the first case of the fast-spreading clade 1b mpox variant that triggered a public health emergency alert from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

A man who travelled from the United Arab Emirates to the southern Indian state of Kerala has been detected with the new variant, health ministry spokesperson Manisha Verma said.

The global health emergency has reached the world’s most populated nation after the deadly clade 1b variant was first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo and began spreading to neighbouring African countries.

The WHO declared mpox – formerly known as monkeypox – a public health emergency in August as the highly contagious variant has killed at least 635 people in DR Congo this year.

The clade 1b strain of mpox was detected in a 38-year-old patient who was admitted to a government hospital in the Malappuram district of Kerala last week after reporting symptoms of fever and rashes, according to reports.

Around 55 people who have been identified as contacts of the patient are at a potential risk.

About 29 friends and family members as well as 37 co-passengers on his flight are being monitored at home for the symptoms of disease after being identified as his contacts. But none of them has shown any mpox symptoms so far, Malappuram district’s nodal officer, Dr Shubin C, told Reuters on Monday.

It comes days after the Indian health ministry clarified that its first new mpox case involved the older strain of the virus and not the deadlier one linked to the current global health emergency.

The mpox strain found in a young man from Haryana who had arrived from an affected country was not from the current outbreak but it was the clade 2 strain, it said.

India has reported about 30 cases and one death from the older strain, known as clade 2, between 2022 and March this year.

The government health agencies have been on alert and gearing up for the spread of the strain in the densely-populated country where many travel overseas in search of job opportunities. Many international airports such as Bengaluru have placed thermal scanners to boost vigilance.

The country has more than two dozen labs equipped to test mpox and has been ramping up sensitisation of health teams in vulnerable areas, the health ministry said in August.

Two strains of mpox spreading in Congo – the endemic form of the virus, clade 1, and the new clade 1b strain – have caused alarm across the globe.

Mpox transmits through close physical contact, including sexual contact, but unlike previous global pandemics such as Covid-19 there is no evidence it spreads easily through the air.