The mpox case found in Thailand was a traveler from Africa

by time news

2024-08-21 07:14:27

Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, director of Thailand’s Department of Disease Control, during a press conference on the issue of mpox, in Bangkok, August 21, 2024.

This is the first case of mpox in Thailand. Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, director of the government’s disease control department, reported on Wednesday August 21 the presence on the Thai territory of people with this viral disease which affects West Africa in particular.

Thailand is not the only Asian country that has recorded a case of mpox: on Friday and Monday, Pakistan and the Philippines respectively announced infections. And this spread outside the African continent comes a few days after the World Health Organization declared the ongoing mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.

Placed in hospital isolation, the patient treated in Thailand is a European who arrived on Tuesday from an African country, Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Read also This article is reserved for our subscribers Why has the WHO classified the mpox epidemic in Africa as a “public health emergency of international concern”

The strain remains to be confirmed

An infected person “has been tested and is not a clade 2 strain”adult, also reported to AFP director of the Thai disease control department. And to add: ” We are confident that this is a clade 1 variant, but we have to wait for the final result from the lab in two days. »

The clade 1 variant, responsible for the current epidemic in Africa, is fatal in 3.6% of cases and is particularly dangerous for children, according to the WHO. The aforementioned results for Pakistan do not indicate that the strain is of the variety currently prevalent in the African continent.

Mpox is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans and is also spread by physical contact. The disease causes fever, muscle pain and skin lesions. Formerly called monkeypox, it is caused by the monkeypox virus, which was discovered in 1958 in Denmark in monkeys bred for research.

Read also This article is reserved for our subscribers What we know about the mpox epidemic: transmission, risk, population at risk

World with AFP

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