SINGAPORE, SOUTH KOREA REPORT FIRST CASES OF MONKEYPOX

SINGAPORE: South Korea and Singapore on Wednesday reported their first imported cases of monkeypox, joining at least 42 countries that have reported such infections this year.

In Singapore, the virus was detected in a 42-year-old male British flight attendant who tested positive on June 20 and is currently in stable condition at the country’s National Center for Infectious Diseases, the country’s health ministry said in a statement late on Tuesday.

The city-state last confirmed an imported case of monkeypox in May 2019.

The latest case involves the flight attendant and 12 other flight crew classed as close contacts and currently in quarantine, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. The British High Commission in Singapore is said to be in discussions with the airline and local authorities to help repatriate the flight crew.

Meanwhile, South Korea became the first in country in East Asia to have identified the disease.

A South Korean national in their 30s who arrived from Germany on Tuesday was confirmed to have contracted the disease, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said.

The patient, whose identity has been withheld, developed a fever last weekend and symptoms worsened to include fatigue and skin rash when they arrived in the country, Peck Kyong-ran, the disease control agency chief, told reporters.

A recent resurgence of the viral disease, which typically leads to symptoms such as fever and rash, has led to more than 2,100 cases being found across the globe as of mid-June, according to data from the World Health Organization.