National –
The Thai Ministry of Public Health decided not to declare Monkeypox as another serious communicable disease in Thailand, despite WHO’s declaration of a global health emergency last Saturday.
Ministry of Health officials told the Associated Press after the academic committee meeting on Monday, July 25th, that Monkeypox will remain a contagious disease that needs to be closely monitored, reasoning that the disease does not yet fit the definition of the Communicable Disease Act.
The Public Health Ministry would only raise the surveillance level to the ‘Sentinel’ level, or surveillance among specific groups of specific areas, in high-risk groups such as foreign tourists or gender diverse groups.
Dr. Chakrarat Pittayawonganon, director of the epidemiology division at the Department of Disease Control, reported on the Monkeypox situation in the country and said that one confirmed case was a Nigerian patient, 27, in Phuket. He was confirmed with the West Africa (A.2) variant which had no severe symptoms, low contagion, and no deaths were confirmed.
The patient is currently treated at the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital in Phnom Penh after he illegally crossed the border from Thailand to Cambodia on Friday and was arrested in Cambodia on the following day.
Authorities have not yet detected new monkeypox cases linked to the first case reported since. About 27 close contacts were also confirmed by the Public Health to test negative for the virus.
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