Are we screening overseas arrivals here in Australia yet like we're supposed to be doing after the World Health Organization declared Mpox to be a public health emergency of international concern on August 14th?
Thailand confirms first Asian case of new Mpox strain Quote:Thailand has announced its first confirmed case of a new, potentially deadlier strain of Mpox - the first in Asia, and second outside of Africa.
According to Thailand's Department of Disease Control, the infected 66-year-old European man arrived in Bangkok from an unnamed African country on 14 August.
He began displaying symptoms the next day, and immediately went to hospital. It has since been confirmed he had contracted Mpox, and in particular the strain known as Clade 1b.
At least 450 people have died from Mpox in an outbreak centred in the Democratic Repulic of Congo which started last year.
Quote:It has since spread to a number of nearby countries - including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, all of which were previously unaffected by Mpox.
Now a more worrying strain of Mpox called Clade 1b has been identified in the east of the DRC, which is being spread along the border and into neighbouring countries.
Sweden was the first place outside of the African continent to confirm a case of Clade 1b a week ago. The infected man had also recently travelled to an unnamed African country, Sweden's public health ministry said at the time.
The infection in Thailand is the first confirmed case of Clade 1b in Asia.
Mpox is transmitted through close contact, such as sex, skin-to-skin contact and talking or breathing close to another person – but it is nowhere near as infectious as other viruses like Covid and measles.
But the spread of the new variant and its high fatality rate in parts of Africa has sparked concern among scientists, and led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a public health emergency of international concern.
By the time our useless "economy first" government wakes up it will be too late... assuming it isn't already here and spreading, of course.