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Thailand on Thursday confirmed the first case in Asia of the new, more deadly strain of MPOX in a patient who had traveled to the country from Africa.
The patient arrived in Bangkok on August 14 and was taken to the hospital with symptoms of MPOX.
The Department of Disease Control announced that laboratory tests on a 66-year-old European national confirmed that he was infected with mpox Clade 1b.
“The Department of Disease Control wishes to confirm the test results showing that the European patient is infected with MPOX lineage 1b,” the department said in a statement, adding that it would also inform the World Health Organisation (WHO) of the development.
“We have monitored 43 people who came into close contact with the patient and so far none of them have shown any symptoms, but they need to continue to be monitored for a total of 21 days.”
The ministry said anyone travelling to Thailand from 42 “risk countries” must register and undergo testing upon arrival.
Africa is seeing a surge in chickenpox cases and deaths, with outbreaks reported since July in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
The World Health Organization has declared the new MPOX variant a global public health emergency and urged manufacturers to ramp up vaccine production.
The disease is caused by a virus that is transmitted by infected animals but is transmitted from person to person through close physical contact, causing fever, muscle aches and skin lesions that resemble large boils.
Mpox has been known for decades, but a new, more deadly and contagious strain (known as clade 1b) is responsible for the recent surge in cases.
According to the WHO, lineage 1b causes death in about 3.6% of cases, with children more at risk.
Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, director-general of Thailand's Department of Disease Control, said MPOX is much less likely to spread quickly than COVID-19 because infection requires close contact.
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