SINGAPORE – The last four months of 2023 have seen a spate of mpox cases here, with 25 cases diagnosed from September to December out of a total of 32 cases last year.
A Ministry of Health (MOH) spokesperson said 20 of the total cases were locally transmitted, although not all sources of infection were known.
He said the “vast majority” of the 12 imported cases were local residents with a history of travel to South America and Southeast Asian countries.
Of the known local infections, one locally transmitted case was linked to an imported case and two cases were linked to previous unrelated domestic cases. Both clusters are now closed as there have been no new cases associated with them over the past 42 days, or two incubation periods.
There were no familial clusters and the remaining cases were unrelated.
“Globally, we are seeing an increase in mpox cases, and Singapore is also seeing an increase in cases nationally,” a Ministry of Health spokesperson said.
Professor Paul Tambia, a senior infectious disease consultant at the National University Hospital, said the following in his capacity as president of the International Society of Infectious Diseases. According to available World Health Organization (WHO) data, mpox peaks a little later than in Europe and the Americas. ”
In October 2023, WHO recorded 668 cases from 29 countries. The following month, there were 906 cases from 26 countries.
Professor Su Lee Yang, deputy dean of global health at the NUS Soe Swee Hock School of Public Health, said that while the number of mpox cases remains very low, the number of community transmissions of unknown origin is “certainly at a low level. “It may represent an endemic disease.” In Singapore.” If so, mpox infections will continue to occur.
Singapore will be free of the viral disease in mid-2022 following a global pandemic that has occurred in many countries where it is not endemic, including Europe, the United States and Australia, unlike Africa, where the disease originated. The disease was designated as a reportable disease.
Singapore has recorded 18 cases in 2022 since reports of the disease began at the end of June that year.
On July 23, 2022, the WHO declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern and the highest possible alert. This is his seventh outbreak designated by the WHO since 2005. The previous outbreak was the novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19).
Although usually mild, mpox can be fatal for some people.
There are two clades, or groups of organisms. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, clade I (originally from the Congo) has a mortality rate of 10%, while clade II (originally from West Africa) has a mortality rate of less than 1%.
The Ministry of Health said all cases reported in Singapore are in clade II.