Thiruvananthapuram: Two autorickshaw drivers are being monitored here after they came in contact with the first monkeypox case detected in the country the other day. A car driver who brought the patient to the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital was also traced with the help of th cyber cell on Saturday.
The person diagnosed with monkeypox had travelled in two autorickshaws after his return from abroad. The drivers of these vehicles were traced after the traveller tested positive for monkeypox.
The primary contact list of this patient has 11 passengers who sat next to him in the flight, his parents, autorickshaw drivers, car driver and a dermatologist whom the patient first visited for treatment. The State Health Minister said 11 people who were in the seats next to him are on high-risk cases.
He had arrived on the Sharjah-Thiruvananthapuram Indigo airlines flight that arrived on July 12. His seat no was 6E 1402. There were 164 passengers and six cabin crew on board, stated Health Minister Veena George on Friday.
The condition of the patient, who has been undergoing treatment at the isolation ward at the MCH, is stable. The blood samples of his parents could be sent for tests only if they showed some kind of symptoms.
He is the first monkeypox case detected in the country. Five districts in Kerala — Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha and Kottayam — are under special alert now following the diagnosis as people from here were his fellow passengers.
Monkeypox is a rare disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus.
