BANGKOK (dpa-AFX) - Thailand has confirmed its first case of Mpox.
A new, potentially deadlier strain of the viral disease has been diagnosed in a 66-year-old European man, who landed in capital Bangkok from an African country on August 14, Thailand's Department of Disease Control said.
It did not reveal from which part of Africa he flied to Thailand.
'We have monitored 43 people who have been in close contact with the patient and so far they have shown no symptoms, but we must continue monitoring for a total of 21 days,' the department said in a statement.
It has made it mandatory on Thailand-bound travelers from 42 countries listed under risk category to undergo testing on arrival.
The European man has contracted clade 1b, the new virus strain found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a growing number of African countries.
This is the first confirmed case of Mpox in Asia, and second outside of Africa.
The first one was confirmed in Sweden earlier this month.
The World Health Organization last week declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
DR Congo is the worst-affected, with more than 15600 cases and 537 deaths reported so far this year.
The monkeypox virus is an orthopoxvirus that causes mpox, a highly contagious disease with symptoms similar to smallpox, although less severe.
The disease is transmitted from animals to humans, with cases often found close to tropical rain forests.
It can also spread from humans to humans through close contact, such as sex, skin-to-skin contact and talking or breathing close to another person.
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