BangkokPost-July 25
Thailand is considering raising further its health alert for monkeypox by listing it as a so-called “serious communicable disease”, after the viral disease was classified as a new public health emergency worthy of international concern. World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday declared monkeypox as “A Public Health Emergency of International Concern” and urged member countries to find effective methods that do not stigmatize target groups. The Ministry of Public Health on Sunday raised surveillance measures nationwide in response to WHO’s announcement, said Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul. He was speaking after chairing an urgent meeting with health authorities in which they discussed responses to the monkeypox outbreak. This comes after detection of the first confirmed case in the country, a Nigerian tourist who escaped into neighboring Cambodia after he was found to have the disease before being nabbed there. The man has been detained in Cambodia while tracing of his close contacts in Phuket where he stayed in the past month is under way. None have been found infected by monkeypox, said Mr Anutin. In Cambodia, Khuong Sreng, governor of Phom Penh, urged three people, believed to have travelled with Osmond Chihazirim Nzerem, the Nigerian patient, in the same car to Phnom Penh to report to local health authorities. Anan Jongkaewwattana, a virologist with the National Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (Biotec), meanwhile, warned that using a condom while having sex is not sufficient protection against monkeypox.
Although HIV transmissions and monkeypox share some similarities, using a condom alone won’t be enough to protect against monkeypox as does it in protecting against HIV, he said. Read more at: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2353036/govt-on-high-monkeypox-alert
