THE PUBLIC Health Ministry is speeding up the search for people who might have got infected with monkeypox after 13 persons linked to the country’s second case, a Thai man who got infected in Bangkok, are now under observation for symptoms and quarantined for 21 days, Matichon newspaper TV Channel 7 said today (July 21).
Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong, head of the Disease Control Department, said Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Public Health Minister Anutin Chanvirakul ordered his department to monitor such cases.
The department sent officials from two agencies, Disease Control and Prevention (Urban) and Epidemiology, to check the areas where the 47-year-old infected Thai man lived and got infected and also those who had close contact with a foreign man from whom he picked up the infection through unprotected six.
They were all sent to Vajira Hospital for examination and possible treatment.
Dr. Opas said investigation revealed that the second monkeypox patient had unprotected sex with the foreign man on July 12 and developed a fever on July 15. Three days later pustules appeared on his genitals and he bought some medicine to apply but the symptoms only worsened and he started developing a rash between the eyebrows on his face, arms, legs and torso.
He went to Vachira Hospital for a checkup and with the risk of having developed monkeypox he was examined in a separate room. Specimens from the pustules, pharynx and blood were collected and sent to Chulalongkorn University’s Emerging Infectious Diseases Health Science Centre and Department of Medical Sciences and it was later confirmed that he had been infected with monkeypox.
Dr. Opas mentioned that monkeypox is not easily transmitted but could be picked up through close contact with blisters, pus, wounds and the patient’s secretions.
The same measures to protect against Covid-19 would protect people against monkeypox with these including washing hands frequently, maintaining social distance, eating cooked food, not sharing personal items with others, wearing a face mask and avoiding contact with suspected patients.
Globally there are now around 20,600 confirmed monkeypox cases in 77 countries with this viral disease largely spreading in Europe, as of July 12, 2202 a total of 35 European countries and territories confirmed cases, and almost all the patients are men.
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Top: Dr. Opas Karnkawinpong. Photo: Matichon
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