Tackling Monkeypox

Source: The post is based on an article “Tackling Monkeypox” published in the Times of India on 25th July 2022. 

Syllabus: GS 3 Disaster Management 

Relevance: Biological Disaster; Monkey Pox  

News: Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared monkeypox a global health emergency. It is a signal to India to really scale up its response.  

Globally, nearly 18,000 cases of monkeypox have been detected. In India, 4 cases have been detected 

The US has ordered nearly 7 million doses of the Jynneos vaccine for delivery in 2022 and 2023.  

Measures that can be taken by India 

At present, the government should implement prevention and treatment strategies. Because in the future, the draconian lockdowns, movement curbs or alarmism can cause a lot of disorder.  

The community disease surveillance initiative must be initiated. The Healthcare workers should be in position to get reports of patients manifesting chickenpox-like symptoms because the monkeypox can be overlooked as chickenpox. 

The test-trace-isolate-treat-vaccinate strategy must be adopted. It refers to quarantining, contact tracing, testing, and ring vaccination for individuals who are at risk.  

Initially, all the medical workers can be vaccinated with the smallpox vaccine. It gives broad spectrum protection against monkeypox too, as per reports.  

What should be done? 

The Indian government must start negotiations for getting a manufacturing licence for the vaccine.  Further, the government should place bulk orders and make advance payments to incentivise vaccine companies to scale up production. 

The Centre and states must reform their communication strategies so that mis-information do not prevail among the people across the country. For example, informing people about the best practice to protect themselves, like wearing of mask in case of Covid.  

The agencies should work to assure the dignity of the patients. A lot of symptomatic persons did not approach health workers during the covid pandemic, due to the stigma attached to contracting Covid.