Health officials have mounted a vigil along Karnataka’s borders with Kerala in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts in the wake of the country’s first confirmed case of monkey pox reported from the neighbouring State.
While health officials in Mysuru said that a team of personnel were screening all the passengers entering Karnataka from Kerala through the Bavali checkpost in H.D. Kote since Friday, Chamarajanagar district health officials have sounded an alert in the health facilities in villages along the border with Kerala for persons with symptoms of monkey pox.
H.D Kote Taluk Health officer Ravi Kumar said a team of health officials had been deployed at the inter-state checkpost at Bavali. “We are checking the passengers of all the vehicles passing through the checkpost for fever, rashes on the body or other symptoms of monkey pox”, the official said.
Though Kerala’s border with Karnataka spreads through several kilometres in Mysuru district, health officials said they will be only screening people entering the State from the checkpost at Bavali. “We are taking down the names of all the passengers while checking them for temperature and making inquiries if they are sufferring from fever or having rashes”, the official said.
There was no need for panic and the vigil had been mounted only as a precautionary measure, the official said adding that monkey pox is known to spread through bodily contact with an infected person.
Wards reserved
Meanwhile, health officials in Chamarajanagar, who have also sounded an alert in health facilities in villages of Gundlupet taluk bordering Kerala, said two wards have been reserved in Gundlupet general hospital as isolation wards for any suspected case of monkey pox.
Chamarajanagar District Health Officer Vishveshwaraiah said health facilities in the villages in the areas bordering Kerala that fall in Gundlupet taluk have been instructed to watch out for persons with symptoms of monkey pox that include fever and rashes. The health personnel have been told to provide them symptomatic treatment, but keep the higher officials informed. However, no such case has been identified so far, he added..
