NEW DELHI: The health ministry has given  instruction to all airports anzd land ports on the borders with Bangladesh and Pakistan to remain vigilant for international passengers showing symptoms of Mpox, according to official sources on Sunday.

The ministry has designated three Centre-run hospitals in Delhi—Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, and Lady Hardinge Medical College—as key centers for the isolation, management, and treatment of Mpox patients. State governments have also been instructed to identify and designate similar hospitals within their regions.

P K Mishra, the principal secretary to the prime minister, led a high-level meeting on Sunday to evaluate the country’s preparedness for Mpox, underscoring the need for heightened surveillance to ensure prompt detection. While there are currently no reported cases of Mpox in India, officials indicated that the risk of a widespread outbreak with sustained transmission remains low.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) for the second time on August 14, warning that the viral disease could spread quickly to new countries. The announcement was made after an emergency committee of independent experts reviewed the rapidly rising number of infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the spread of the disease to new African nations where it had previously never been recorded.

The number of infections is 160% higher than in 2023, and the virus has spread to six new countries in 10 days, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention had noted, earlier this month.