Days after a 38-year-old Kerala man was confirmed to have been infected with the Mpox Clade 1b strain, considered to be more virulent and transmissible, Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra on Thursday issued a list of actionable points for all states and union territories to combat the further spread of the virus in the country.

The advisory asks states and UTs to continue undertaking appropriate activities to make communities aware of the disease, its modes of spread, and the need for timely reporting and preventive measures.

Highlighting the readiness of diagnostic testing capability in the country, the advisory stated that 36 labs across India supported by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and three PCR test kits validated by the Central Drug Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) are readily available.

“Samples from lesions of any patient with suspected symptoms of Mpox should be sent to the designated labs immediately, and for those that test positive, a sample should be sent to ICMR-NIV for genome sequencing to determine the clade,” the advisory added.

Since the WHO declared Mpox, or monkeypox, a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) last month, India has reported two cases — one in Delhi and the other in Kerala.