The infected person is a 66-year-old European man who arrived in Thailand last week from an unnamed African country where the disease has already spread. “Test results confirm that the man has been infected with monkeypox strain 1B, the first case to be diagnosed in Thailand, but this man may have been infected in an endemic country,” the director-general of the local epidemics ministry told Reuters.
Authorities have conducted contact tracing, but have not found any other local cases. Clade 1b is of global concern because it spreads easily through everyday contact.
In Sweden last week, the variant was identified for the first time in Europe, marking the first sign that the African pandemic was spreading beyond the continent. Following the emergence of the new strain, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
According to Thai authorities, the infected man traveled to Thailand via an unnamed Middle Eastern country. The mpox clade 2 variant has been detected in 800 cases since 2022 in the country, but this is the first time clade 1 or 1b has been identified.
Source: Reuters
Cover image is an illustration. Cover image source: Getty Images
