A mass awareness campaign on monkeypox will be launched in Kolkata soon so that people know when to report to a doctor, deputy mayor Atin Ghosh, who also heads the health department of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), said on Monday.
Senior officials of the KMC and the state health department met on Monday to discuss how Kolkata should remain prepared against monkeypox.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared monkeypox a public health emergency.
The health department will also train doctors of the KMC about key aspects of the disease on Wednesday. West Bengal still has not reported any case of monkeypox so far.
However, a senior official of the state health department said the objective of the campaign was to have a good surveillance system in place so that “anyone who had symptoms was identified and linked to health services available”.
“We will start awareness campaigns across the city,” said Ghosh.
An official of the KMC said in the campaign they would only harp on a few points — if someone has fever along with rash — especially vesicular rash (phoshka) — they should visit a doctor.
The KMC will also urge all doctors to inform it about any suspected monkeypox cases in the city. Only two laboratories in Kolkata — the School of Tropical Medicine and the Beleghata Infectious Diseases Hospital — are prepared to collect samples, conduct tests and isolate suspected patients at the moment.
If cases increase, more facilities will be opened, said the health department official.
Chandrampouli Bhattacharya, an infectious diseases specialist with the Peerless Hospital, said the symptoms of monkeypox were well defined.
“The symptoms are fever and vesicular rash. A person should visit a doctor if they have any of these.”
