THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Health Minister Veena George has said that a person has been diagnosed with monkeypox in Kerala. The infected person, who returned from the UAE, is undergoing treatment in Thiruvananthapuram Medical College hospital.

"A Monkeypox positive case is reported. The infected person returned from UAE on July 12. All the steps are being taken as per the guidelines issued by WHO and ICMR. The 35-year-old patient has fever, body aches and symptoms similar to smallpox. His health condition is satisfactory," the minister said.

The patient is a native of the Kollam district. Upon reaching the Thiruvananthapuram airport, he had gone straight to his house in Kollam. There are 11 people in the contact list, including those who were on the plane. This includes the patient's father, mother, taxi driver and those who were on the plane.

Meanwhile, the Centre on Thursday wrote a letter to all the states and union territories, reiterating some of the key actions that are required to contain the spread of the disease.

Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan cited the letter sent by the ministry on May 31 in which it had issued a comprehensive 'Guidelines for Management of Monkeypox Disease'

The health secretary asked all the states and union territories to take key actions like orientation and regular re-orientation of all key stakeholders including health screening teams at points of entries (PoEs), disease surveillance teams, doctors working in hospitals about common signs and symptoms, differential diagnosis, case definitions for s for suspect/probable/confirmed cases and contacts, contact tracing and other surveillance activities that need to be undertaken following the detection of a case, testing, IPC protocols, clinical management etc.

He further asked to screen and test all suspect cases at points of entries and in the community.