Thailand says mpox detected in European who travelled from Africa

Thailand has identified an mpox case of a European man who arrived from Africa last week, and is still waiting for the laboratory results to find out what strain it is, health authorities claimed. 
 
Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, the head of the Department of Disease Control declared on Wednesday that the 66-year-old patient travelled to Thailand on August 14 from an unidentified African country. 
 
The authorities are handling the case as if it is the Clade 1 variant of mpox, the type that has caused an uproar in the global community as it seems to be more infectious. 

The affected has been admitted in a hospital as more tests are conducted to ascertain the strain. Thongchai added that the man had passed through another country in the Middle East, which he failed to mention, to proceed on to Thailand. 
 
To confirm this idea, subgenotype analysis of the 37 molecular samples collected between 2022 and 2022 unique Thai Sleek cases has indicated 800 cases of mpox Clade 2 in the nation, but the Clade 1 and Clade 1b variants have not been detected yet. 
 
The WHO categorised mpox as a global health emergency but clarified that this is not another COVID-19; a lot is already known about the disease and how its spread can be contained. 
 
The condition results in fever, muscular pains and large ulcerating nodules of the skin. Clade 1b – which itself is not as old as clade 1a, but is more virulent and more easily transmissible – is responsible for the latest wave of infections. 
 
In addition, since July the outbreak has occurred in the Democratic Republic Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. 
 
On Wednesday, the United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) called for $18. 5m in aid to be used in helping to offer medical services to the affected in Africa. 
 
“We need to act fast to save the lives of the most vulnerable and to prevent this outbreak from doing more damage to this area,” added IOM Director General Amy Pope. 
 
At the same time in Argentina health officials have placed a cargo vessel on the Parana River under isolation because of suspected mpox case on the vessel, the government reported. 
 
While the Ministry of Health only knew that the crew member was an Indian national. They said he had developed cyst-like skin lesions mainly on chest and faces and he has been in isolation. 
 
NHI officials in the Philippines on Wednesday confirmed that a new mpox case that was reported in the country is of the Clade II strain, which is considered less severe. 

Clade 1b is lethal up to approximately 3. 6 per cent of cases; children are more affected as noted by the WHO. 
 
It was earlier known as monkeypox and was first identified in the year 1958 in Denmark in monkeys that were used for research.