Thailand’s Disease Control Department reported the country’s seventh confirmed monkeypox case today (Sunday), in a Thai woman living in Bangkok, who has had a sexual relationship with a foreigner, but has not travelled abroad during the current spread of the disease.
Dr. Opart Karnkawinpong, the department’s director-general, said that, about three weeks before falling the ill, the 37-year-old single woman visited a night spot in Bangkok, which is popular among foreigners.
On August 20th she developed a low fever. The following day, a blister appeared on her anus, followed by more blisters appearing on other parts of her body the next day. She then went to Bamrasnaradura Infectious Diseases Institute to seek medical treatment.
Doctors there took specimens from her body for real-time polymerase chain reaction tests, at the institute and at the Medical Sciences Department, which confirmed her monkeypox infection.
Dr. Opart said that health investigators have identified three people who had been in close physical contact with the woman and have placed them under watch with advice that they monitor their condition.
The sixth monkeypox case is a 21-year old Thai woman who worked in a Thai traditional massage parlour in Qatar. She flew back to Thailand on August 21st and returned to her home in the north-eastern province of Maha Sarakham, where she sought treatment.
