Thailand confirms first monkeypox infection

BANGKOK — Thailand's health ministry on Thursday confirmed the country's first monkeypox infection in a 27-year-old Nigerian national in the southern island of Phuket.

The man, who had a history of traveling from Nigeria, said he had been ill for about a week, according to senior health official Opas Karnkawinpong.

A surge in monkeypox infections has been reported since early May outside the West and Central African countries where the disease has long been endemic.

The normal initial symptoms of monkeypox include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery chickenpox-like rash.

Initial outbreak cases had no epidemiological links to areas that have historically reported monkeypox, suggesting that undetected transmission might have been going on for some time. — Reuters