Singapore reports 10th case of monkeypox

The patient, a 28-year-old male Taiwan citizen who lives in Singapore, is currently warded at the NCID. PHOTO: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - One more imported monkeypox case was reported in Singapore on Tuesday (July 26), bringing the total number of cases detected here to 10.

The 28-year-old Taiwanese man who lives in Singapore had recently returned from Canada.

He tested positive on Tuesday, and is currently warded at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), said the Ministry of Health (MOH) in an update on its website. His condition is stable.

The patient had developed a fever, headache, pain in the anal region and muscle pain last Friday. This subsequently progressed to a rash at the perianal region, MOH said, referring to the area of the body surrounding the anus.

He sought medical care on Tuesday and was admitted to NCID on the same day.

Contact tracing is ongoing, MOH added.

Of the 10 monkeypox cases here, five are local and five are imported. So far, the cases are not linked.

More than 16,000 monkeypox cases have been detected in more than 75 countries, up from about 3,000 at the end of June.

On July 23, the World Health Organisation declared monkeypox a global health emergency.

This is the strongest possible call to action by the global organisation, signalling a new urgency and scale for a disease previously confined to western and central Africa.

Covid-19 was given the same label back in 2020.

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