Patients in India are reluctant to get tested and treated for monkeypox due to the stigma and bias attached to the disease, said a report.
The monkeypox outbreak was first reported in May and has since then affected over 28,000 people in the world. However, India has reported only nine cases so far, Bloomberg reported quoting data from global.health.
Although the disease can spread through all kinds of contact, 94 percent of the cases studied in the US revealed male-to-male sexual or close intimate contact three weeks prior to the symptoms, the report said quoting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In countries, where people face stigma and bias due to homophobia, patients may not seek help, World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
Although India decriminalised homosexuality in 2018, stigma remains a pervasive social barrier.
ALSO READ:
“Many more cases are expected in India,” IANS quoted Rajeev Jayadevan, co-chairman of the Indian Medical Association's national task force on COVID-19, as saying.
Mumbai doctor Ishwar Gilada, who opened India's first AIDS clinic in 1986, said the stigma attached to monkeypox was acting as a great barrier for testing and treatment of the disease.
He said even before the first cases were reported in India, two of his patients -- a gay man and a male who identified as bisexual – refused to get tested as they did not want to be the first monkeypox cases in the country.
“They are going underground,” Gilada told Bloomberg.
Genetic sequencing of virus specimens was conducted for other patients in Kerala, which revealed that the virus may have been present in the state for some time before it was reported.
Speaking to IANS, Gilada said the government needs to ramp up testing similar to what it did during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We must have our own testing kits to help people test themselves, which will also help curb the cases,” Gilada told IANS.
At present, there are 15 Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratories of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) that are conducting preliminary tests for monkeypox infection.
To persuade people to go for testing, sensitive and non-judgmental public health campaigns need to be conducted in India, Bloomberg quoted Sanjay Pujari, director at the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Pune, as saying.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
Check out our in-depth Market Coverage, Business News & get real-time Stock Market Updates on CNBC-TV18. Also, Watch our channels CNBC-TV18, CNBC Awaaz and CNBC Bajar Live on-the-go!
PM Modi's Patna visit: From serving langar to historic roadshow
May 13, 2024 5:13 PM
Shehnai by Ustad Bismillah Khan's kin, ode to Kashi's celebrities: PM Modi's roadshow to showcase Varanasi's grandeur
May 13, 2024 11:03 AM