The case in Singapore concerns a British man who was in the city between 15 and 17 June. He tested positive for monkey pox on Monday after developing a rash, headache and fever last week.
“During this period, he stayed in his hotel room for the most part, except to visit a massage parlor and dine at three restaurants on June 16,” Singapore’s Ministry of Health said on Tuesday.
The ministry said 13 people in close contact with the man have been identified and the contacts are being traced, adding that the man is being treated at the National Center for Infectious Diseases.
The case in South Korea concerns a South Korean national who filed a complaint with the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency from Germany on Wednesday after arriving in the country. The South Korean — who is now being treated at a facility in Seoul — reported experiencing a headache before flying and developed a fever, sore throat, fatigue and skin lesions upon arrival in the country, the KCDA said.
Meanwhile, South Korea said it is also investigating another suspicious case involving a foreigner who entered the country on Monday and was taken to a hospital in Busan after showing symptoms and developing a skin ulcer.
Monkeypox, a close relative of smallpox, has an incubation period of seven to 14 days, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The first symptoms are usually flu-like, such as fever, chills, fatigue, headache and muscle weakness, followed by swollen lymph nodes, which help the body fight infection and disease.
The disease later progresses to a rash and lesions that can be blisters and scabs all over the body – usually lasting for two to four weeks.
In some places, including parts of West and Central Africa, the virus has been circulating for decades.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recently said it would remove the distinction between endemic and non-endemic countries to reflect a “uniform response”.
Lessons from Covid-19
The latest case of monkey pox in Singapore was discovered in 2019, a 38-year-old man from Nigeria who had traveled to the city-state for a wedding.
Monkeypox is not a new disease, so we actually know a lot about the disease and the virus [which] “It’s been around for a while,” said Koo Yong Khin, a physician and research associate at the Duke-NUS Center for Outbreak Preparedness in Singapore.
“But there is a change in how the disease is spreading and spreading with this current outbreak… [and] This appears to be an evolving situation.”
Khoo said the lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic could be applied to any possible monkeypox outbreak in the region.
“Countries would be wise to pay attention. We have many tools that we have used in Covid-19 and they will now be useful: contract tracing methods, quarantine protocols and even a mass immunization strategy if needed.
“While I don’t think we need to worry too much about the global situation and we may be in a better place now, disease outbreaks are never as predictable as we know. We may be in for monkeypox surprises in the near future, so we must continue to strengthen our health and surveillance systems, by partnering with other countries and making better decisions than [we did] during the covid pandemic.
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