Mpox scare: This week, Thailand reported a case of the extremely contagious Clade 1b strain of Mpox, raising fears of a worldwide outbreak. Only a few days have passed since Sweden announced the first case of this kind to occur outside of Africa. This is the first case to originate from Asia.
“This man is probably infected from an endemic country, but the test results confirm that he is infected with the Clade 1b strain of monkeypox, which is the first case diagnosed in Thailand,” officials told Reuters.
The 66-year-old European guy who carries the infection traveled to Thailand last week from an unidentified African nation where the illness was spreading.
As the number of cases of Mpox surge surged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Health Organization earlier this month designated it a public health emergency of worldwide concern (the highest alert level). The virus was discovered this week in Sweden and Pakistan, marking its first foray outside of its core in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and into other African countries.
Hundreds of people have died in the nation from the highly contagious Clade 1b form of the virus, which has recently spread from its epicenter into neighboring African countries. Recently, cases of the virus’s “regular” type were also found in Pakistan and the Philippines.
There are 2 Mpox subtypes
Clade 1, indigenous to the Congo Basin in central Africa, is more virulent and lethal than Clade 2, which is endemic to West Africa. Now known as Clade 1a, Clade 1b is a recent branch of Clade 1. First identified in September of last year, the northeastern DRC’s Clade 1b outbreak is swiftly spreading.
Historically, clade 1a outbreaks have been caused by infections from sick animals, with a small amount of subsequent human-to-human or community-to-household transmission. However, since the “zoonotic transmission of Clade 1b” has not been “isolated or detected,” experts assume that Clade 1b only circulates among humans. Scientists are attempting to determine whether Clades 1a and 1b differ in the severity of their respective diseases.
(With inputs from agencies)