Thailand announced on Thursday (22) that it had discovered the first case of infection with the new Mpox strain, which is more contagious and deadly, in a European patient who had traveled to the Asian country from Africa.
The CDC said laboratory tests on the patient, a 66-year-old European man, confirmed he had been infected with the clade 1b strain responsible for the current pandemic.
The infected man was placed in quarantine in the hospital.
“We are controlling 43 people who were in close contact with the patient, and they have not yet shown any symptoms, but we must continue monitoring for 21 days,” the statement from the administration said.
Anyone travelling to Thailand from 42 “high-risk countries” will be required to register and undergo testing upon arrival, according to the Thai Ministry of Health.
Faced with the increase in smallpox cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is also affecting Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, the World Health Organization decided to declare a public health emergency of international concern on August 14, the highest level of alert.
According to the World Health Organization, type 1, which is responsible for the current epidemic in Africa, is fatal in 3.6% of cases and is particularly dangerous for children.
Smallpox is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans, but it is also transmitted through close physical contact with someone infected with the virus. The disease causes fever, muscle pain, and skin lesions.
The virus was discovered in 1958 in Denmark, in monkeys bred for research. In 1970, it was first discovered in humans, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire).
The Democratic Republic of the Congo has recorded at least 16,000 cases, 548 of them fatal.
Sweden was the first country outside Africa to record a case of clade 1b, on August 15.
