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Final 8 contacts of Singapore’s first monkeypox patient off surveillance on Thursday

(PHOTO: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Getty Images)
(PHOTO: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — The final eight contacts of Singapore’s first monkeypox patient will be taken off active surveillance on Thursday (30 May), said the Ministry of Health (MOH).

These contacts were assessed to have a low risk of being infected and had been put on active surveillance, where they were called twice daily to monitor their health progress, MOH said in a press release on Tuesday.

All contacts have reported to be well and symptom-free, it added.

Separately, the 38-year-old Nigerian national who tested positive for the virus on 8 May, has recovered and has been assessed to be non-infectious.

He was discharged from the National Centre for Infectious Diseases last Friday and left Singapore on the same day, the ministry added.

The patient arrived in Singapore on 28 April and stayed at a hotel at 21 Lorong 8 Geylang before being hospitalised at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Prior to his arrival in Singapore, he had attended a wedding in Nigeria, where he may have consumed bush meat, a possible source of transmission of the virus.

All 22 people who came into close contact with the patient have completed their quarantine after having been monitored for the maximum incubation period of 21 days from their last date of exposure to the man.

The last close contact completed quarantine on Tuesday, with all 22 reported to be well and symptom-free, said the ministry.

“Early detection, contact tracing and quarantine of close contacts have enabled us to tackle the monkeypox case in a proactive, swift and coordinated manner,” said the MOH’s director of medical services Associate Professor Benjamin Ong.

Visitors to areas affected by monkeypox in Central and Western Africa are advised to take certain precautions including avoiding contact with wild animals and consumption of bush meat, said the MOH.

Transmission of the monkeypox virus usually occurs when a person comes into close contact with infected animals, typically rodents, through the hunting and consumption of bush meat.

Infected persons would typically experience fever, headache, muscle ache, backache, swollen lymph nodes and skin rash.

Human-to-human transmission, while possible, is limited. A person is infectious only during the period when he has symptoms, particularly skin rash.

Most patients recover within two to three weeks. In some cases, however, the virus can cause serious complications such as pneumonia, sepsis, inflammation of the brain and eye infection with ensuing loss of vision.

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