THAILAND, Aug 21: Thailand has reported its first case of mpox involving a 66-year-old European man who arrived from Africa last week. Health officials are currently awaiting test results to identify the strain of the virus.

Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, the head of Thailand’s Department of Disease Control, confirmed on Wednesday that the patient arrived in Thailand on August 14 from an unspecified African country. The patient had also transited through a Middle Eastern country, which was not named.

Authorities are treating this case as if it were the Clade 1 variant of mpox, a strain that has raised global concerns due to its higher transmissibility. The patient has been placed in quarantine at a hospital while additional tests are conducted to confirm the strain.

Since 2022, Thailand has reported 800 cases of the mpox Clade 2 variant but has not yet encountered any cases of the Clade 1 or Clade 1b variants. The World Health Organization (WHO) has classified mpox as a global public health emergency, though it emphasizes that the virus is not comparable to COVID-19, noting that effective control measures are well established.

Mpox symptoms include fever, muscle aches, and large boil-like skin lesions. The recent surge in cases has been attributed to the Clade 1b variant, which is more deadly and transmissible. Recent outbreaks have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.