Garhwa’s minor girl tests negative for Monkeypox, two more viruses

Daltonganj, Aug 1: The 7-year-old girl from Garhwa district who was earlier suspected to be a case of  Monkeypox, has tested negative.

She neither has orthopox virus nor Monkeypox nor varicella-zoster virus. The girl has tested negative for all these three viruses.

A report to this effect has come from the National Institute of Virology, Pune last night.

Garhwa district epidemiologist Dr Santosh Kumar Mishra confirmed it this morning saying, “The 7-years-old girl child has tested negative for all these three types of the viruses according to the report that came from the National Institute of Virology Pune.”

The girl’s throat swab, nasal swab and blood samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology Pune for the real-time PCR test. 5 samples were sent to Pune while 1 sample to the RIMS Ranchi.

“Now as she has tested all negative, we will pursue the RIMS Ranchi to test her 1 sample sent earlier for the chicken pox.”

“We people right at the outset when this girl was brought to us in Sadar hospital Garhwa, were of the clinical opinion that this case is not even remotely be taken as a suspected case of the Monkeypox and now our clinical opinion proved true when this girl tested negative,” the district epidemiologist said.

Garhwa district epidemiologist and his team had a 24×7 watch and care for this girl which helped her mother, who is a Sahiya, to remain calm when her daughter was under medical supervision.

Dr Santosh said, “We appeal to our residents of Garhwa district to readopt all Covid appropriate behaviour and wear masks and avoid penetrating into crowded and stuffy places when with no work around.”

“We again ask our people to visit the nearest government health hub in the event of fever and rashes and never to ignore these two things in the larger interest of the public health,” he added.