Researchers at the National Institute of Virology, Pune, had recently posted the case report of the first two imported monkeypox cases that were detected in Kerala. But the people who tested positive for monkeypox virus had returned from the United Arab Emirates just days before they were detected with monkeypox infection. In a preprint (which is yet to be peer-reviewed), the researchers have detailed the clinical presentation of the infection in these people, and based on genome sequencing data have designated them as belonging to the A.2 clade.
The likely mode for transmission of monkeypox virus (MPXV) in both cases has not been mentioned in the preprint. In the first case — a 35-year-old male — the researchers say multiple vesicular rashes were seen in the “oral cavity and lips followed by a single lesion on the genital organ”. The person had revealed similar lesions in people whom he had come in contact with a week before the onset of symptoms but denied any sexual contact.
