Cambodia contract traces after locating monkeypox patient who fled Thailand

Bangkok, Jul 24 (EFE).- Cambodian authorities issued health protocols on Sunday to prevent the spread of monkeypox and initiated contact tracing after Thailand’s first case fled Phuket and was located in Phnom Penh.

The 27-year-old man of Nigerian nationality, who had been living in Thailand since last year, went to a hospital on the tourist island of Phuket on the 16th where blood samples were collected before he was discharged.

A laboratory in the following days confirmed he was carrying the virus. Authorities could not contact or locate him.

Thai authorities confirmed this first community case of monkeypox on Thursday night and gave a press conference on Friday where they provided more details, including that the man could not be located.

The director general of the Department of Disease Control, Opas Karnkawinpong, showed on Saturday morning that a telephone signal located the patient in a province bordering Cambodia.

Cambodian authorities later Saturday found and arrested the man in Phnom Penh, without specifying how he crossed the border, and sent him to the Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital, according to the health ministry.

The ministry on Sunday appealed to those who have been in contact with the man, or anyone showing symptoms, to isolate and seek medical support.

Authorities are undertaking tracing of the man’s journey and contacts.

The World Health Organization declared a global health emergency, its highest level of alert, on Saturday a due to the monkeypox outbreak, which has accumulated more than 16,000 cases in 75 countries, many of them in Europe.

With this, there are three international health emergencies in force in the world, including Covid-19 and polio. EFE

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