Praja Arogya Vedika (PAV) has appealed to the State government to launch awareness campaigns to alert the people on the need to take measures to prevent the outbreak and spread of the monkeypox virus.
In a letter to the Health Minister on Wednesday, PAV general secretary T. Kameswara Rao and president M.V. Ramanaiah noted that the new virus is creating havoc across the globe, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) has already alerted that the monkeypox virus was going to result in a large number of fatalities in future. More than 42,500 cases are spread over the world and 92 deaths have been reported till last month. Even in India, the virus is slowly spreading and nearly 25 cases have been identified.
It is a viral zoonotic infection, which can spread from animals to humans, and from person to person. The most common symptoms of monkeypox include fever, headache, muscle aches, back pain, low energy and swollen lymph nodes. Monkeypox spreads from person to person through close contact with someone who has a monkeypox rash, including through face-to-face, skin-to-skin, mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-skin contact, including sexual contact.
Though no case has been reported in Andhra Pradesh, so far, as it is widespread in the world, preventive measures are needed to educate the general public about the new viral infection. The PAV leaders appealed to the State Health Minister to to take necessary steps in this regard. They expressed their readiness to extend support to the State government for creating awareness among the people.
They also sought that hospitals must be equipped with isolation wards, with sufficient number of doctors and nursing staff, with protective gear like PPE kits.
