Singapore will screen for mpox symptoms at border checkpoints, boosting precautionary measures against the virus after its outbreak was declared a global health emergency.
Temperature and visual screening will start on Friday at the island nation’s Changi and Seletar airports, as well as sea checkpoints, for inbound travellers and crew arriving from places where there’s risk of mpox outbreaks, the Ministry of Health said in a statement. Travellers who have fever, rash or symptoms compatible with mpox will be referred for medical assessment, it said.
Asian countries like China, India and Pakistan have boosted surveillance for mpox recently. Thailand became the first country in Asia to detect a new mutated strain of the virus, clade Ib.
As of Thursday, “13 confirmed cases of mpox have been detected this year, all of which are of the less severe Clade II infections,” MOH said, adding that no Clade I cases have yet been detected in Singapore.
The patient who tested positive for clade Ib was a European male who arrived in Bangkok last week from Africa, according to the Department of Disease Control of Thailand’s health ministry. Authorities have identified 43 close contacts of the 66-year-old patient and put them under surveillance.
The patient with illnesses and symptoms associated with mpox was admitted to a hospital on August 15, a day after his arrival in Bangkok. Laboratory tests on Thursday confirmed the variant as clade Ib and Thailand will report the result to the World Health Organization, the ministry said in a statement.
Tourism-reliant Thailand said it will tighten surveillance and screening measures at all its international entry points including Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport.
Travellers from 42 countries with mpox outbreaks will have to register themselves on the health ministry’s online application before leaving for Thailand and undergo health screening upon arrival according to global protocols, the ministry said.
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WHO declares mpox a global health emergency as new form of virus emerges
WHO declares mpox a global health emergency as new form of virus emerges
The newer strain – with a fatality rate of 3 per cent – has been spreading across several African countries and is reported to have killed more than 500 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Children and adolescents are also getting sick, with known fatal cases exceeding 60 per cent among patients under the age of 5.
Unlike an earlier milder strain that erupted in 2022 and spread primarily through men who have sex with men, the current variant that produces fluid-containing lesions is spreading through all kinds of sexual activity and other close physical contact.
Thailand said it will quarantine any traveller found with mpox symptoms, and visitors from countries with outbreaks will have their temperatures measured, checked for rashes and travel history questioned. The government is also preparing a 60-room quarantine facility to isolate patients in the event of a widespread outbreak, the health ministry said.
The Southeast Asian nation, which has reported about 800 cases of mpox clade II variant since 2022, is keen to contain the virus as it heads into the busy tourist season when millions of holidaymakers are expected to visit the country.
Tourism is one of Thailand’s key industries accounting for about 20 per cent of total jobs and making up roughly 12 per cent of the nation’s US$500 billion economy. Foreign arrivals this year through August 18 have jumped about 33 per cent to more than 22.5 million from the same period in 2023.
