Tibetan boy’s samples sent to VRDL from Karnataka's Hubballi

BENGALURU: The Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) at Bengaluru Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) has received the sample of the third suspected case of monkeypox in the state, from Hubballi.

A nine-year-old Tibetan boy, who had returned from Belgium, developed symptoms of monkeypox, including skin rashes. He has been isolated at a hospital in Hubballi, and his samples were sent to VRDL on Monday evening, sources in the health department said.

The child came to India with his parents and a Tibetan priest on July 1. He had arrived in Delhi and visited a Tibetan camp at Himachal Pradesh, and Nagpur in Maharashtra. He had also visited the Mundgod monastery in Uttara Kannada district, and then reached Hubballi, sources said. “It could be another case of chickenpox as he had come to the country on July 1 itself, and the incubation period of monkeypox is not that long,” a source said.

Earlier, the sample of the second suspected case of monkeypox -- a middle-aged African who had come from Ethiopia -- received from a private hospital in Bengaluru, tested negative for monkeypox. The sample of the first suspected case from Bengaluru was also negative.