Thailand has reported its first case of the deadlier mpox strain, becoming the first country in Asia and second outside of Africa. The Thailand Department of Disease Control announced that the infected 66-year-old European man arrived in Bangkok from an unnamed African country on 14 August.
“He began displaying symptoms the next day, and immediately went to hospital. It has since been confirmed he had contracted Mpox, and in particular the strain known as Clade 1b,” the Department reported.
According to the department, it was monitoring 43 asymptomatic people who had been in close contact with the patient for a total of 21 days. It instructed anyone travelling to Thailand from 42 “risk countries” to register and undergo testing on arrival in the country.
WHO detailed the mpox outbreak in a recent meeting that during the first six months of 2024, the 1854 confirmed cases of mpox reported by States Parties in the WHO African Region accounted for 36 percent of the cases observed worldwide. Of these confirmed cases in the WHO African region in 2024, 95 percent were reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), that is experiencing an upsurge of cases of mpox, with more than 15,000 clinically compatible cases and over 500 deaths reported, already exceeding the number of cases observed in the DRC in 2023.
In August 14th, the organization declared the outbreak of the new mpox strain a public health emergency. WHO is working with countries and vaccine manufacturers on potential vaccine donations, and coordinating with partners through the interim Medical Countermeasures Network to facilitate equitable access to vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics and other tools.
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