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Thailand confirms Clade 1b mpox case, second outside Africa
- The case is a 66-year-old man confirmed as having mpox who had transited in a Middle Eastern country before arriving in Thailand
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Thailand on Thursday confirmed an mpox case reported this week was the clade 1b strain of the virus, the second confirmed case of the variant outside Africa.
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The case is a 66-year-old European man who had arrived in Thailand last week from an unspecified African country where the disease was spreading.
“The test results confirm that he is infected with the Clade 1b strain of monkeypox, which is the first case diagnosed in Thailand, but this man is likely infected from an endemic country,” Thongchai Keeratihattayakorn, director general of the Department of Disease Control, told Reuters.
He said no other local infections had been detected through contact tracing.
Clade 1b has triggered global concern due to the ease with which it spreads though routine close contact.
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A case of the variant was confirmed last week in Sweden and linked to a growing outbreak in Africa, the first sign of its spread outside the continent.
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