Authorities in Thailand have detected a case of mpox in a European man who arrived in the country from Africa last week, a Thai disease control official said on Aug. 21.
The case was being treated as if it were the Clade 1 form of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, because the person, a 66-year-old European man with residency in Thailand, had arrived on Aug. 14 from an African country where it was spreading, Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, director-general of Thailand’s Department of Disease Control, told Reuters.
“After he arrives from the flight there is very little time frame where he comes into contact with others,” Thongchai said.
“He arrives around 6 p.m. and on the next day, August 15, he went to see the doctor at the hospital.”
Thongchai said the man underwent a test to determine the strain, and the results are expected to be confirmed by Aug. 23.
Authorities are also monitoring 43 others in the country who may have come into contact with the patient, he said.
The African country that the man had been visiting was not named by Thongchai, but he did say the patient had traveled through an unnamed nation in the Middle East on his way back to Thailand.
Thailand has detected 800 cases of mpox Clade 2 since 2022 but has so far not detected a case of the Clade 1 or Clade 1b variants.
On Aug. 14, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared mpox a global public health emergency, its highest form of alert, after an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) spread to more than a dozen countries across the African continent.
Global Concern
The new form of the virus triggered global concern as it seems to spread easily through routine close contact, with countries in Asia and Europe now also reporting cases.A case of the new variant was confirmed on Aug. 15 in Sweden and linked to the growing outbreak in Africa in the first sign of its spread outside the continent.
A day later, Pakistan confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, but it said it did not yet know the strain of the virus.
On Aug. 19, the Philippines detected a new case of the mpox virus in the country—the first since December last year—but said it was awaiting test results to determine the strain.
The patient was a 33-year-old Filipino male who had no travel history outside the Philippines, the Philippine Department of Health said.
Signs and symptoms of an infection can include a rash that may be located on the hands, feet, chest, face, mouth, or near the genitals, as well as chills, fever, fatigue, respiratory symptoms, headache, other aches, cough, sore throat, and nasal congestion.
It is usually mild but can kill; children, pregnant women, and people with weakened immune systems, such as those with HIV, are at a higher risk of complications.
The WHO has reported more than 17,000 mpox cases and more than 500 deaths worldwide this year.
The vast majority, 96 percent of all cases and deaths, have been reported in the DRC.
The central African country’s health system has long struggled to contain any form of disease outbreak because of its size and poor infrastructure.
Children younger than age 15 so far account for more than 70 percent of the cases and 85 percent of deaths in the DRC.
The first mpox vaccine doses from the United States are due to arrive in the DRC next week, according to Congolese Health Minister Roger Kamba.
The disease has been endemic in parts of Africa for decades following its first detection in humans in the DRC in 1970.
