The suspected case of the viral disease mpox in Thailand is now confirmed by the country’s authorities, reports the AFP news agency, among others. It concerns the mutated, more infectious type of the mpox virus, called clade1.
The person infected is in his 60s, and must have traveled to Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, from Africa. It is a European man, according to the country’s Ministry of Health. The man was hospitalized on August 15, a day after his arrival, reports say Bloomberg. This is the first confirmed case of the new virus variant in Asia, according to AFP.
The disease mpox was formerly called monkeypox and has existed in Africa for a long time. Since 2022, it will spread to a greater extent outside the continent.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a global health emergency after the new strain of the disease spread, mainly in the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere in Africa.
Exactly one week ago, the Swedish government confirmed the first case of the new mpox variant in Sweden. The news also made headlines in the international media as it was the first diagnosed case of clade1 outside the African continent.
Mpox is a well-known disease, and has been known since the 1950s. In Sweden, it is classified as a public health disease and is part of the Infection Prevention Act. Thereby, a series of infection prevention measures are in place, such as testing, infection tracing and rules of conduct. There are both vaccines and antiviral drugs against the disease.
The text is updated.