Mpox scare: Thailand confirms Asia’s first case of new ‘deadly’ Clade 1b strain

Thailand reported a case of the highly transmissible Clade 1b strain of Mpox this week amid growing concerns about a global outbreak. The case — the first to be reported from Asia — comes mere days after Sweden reported the first such case outside Africa. 
“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.
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 highly transmissible Clade 1b strain of the virus has killed hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo and has also been detected Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Sweden.