Authorities in Phuket prepare measures to contain monkeypox as the country had its first case of the disease and 6-7 people were in close contact with the infected man there.
A private hospital in Phuket informed the Department of Disease Control that there was a suspected case of monkeypox. Officials of the department and the Phuket public health office found the infected Nigerian man, 27, on July 18.
He arrived from Nigeria and said that he had a fever, coughing, sore throat, rashes and blisters over the past week. The blisters started with his sex organ and later spread to his face, body and arms.
PCR tests at the Faculty of Medicine of Chulalongkorn University and the Department of Medical Sciences confirmed on July 19 that the man had the monkeypox virus.
Dr Koosak Kookiatkul, the public health chief of Phuket, said people should not panic because the disease was not easily transmissible. He said monkeypox was similar to chickenpox which would be transmitted only through direct contact with patients with blisters or through sneezes at people’s face. (TNA)
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