Southeast Asia ramps up mpox countermeasures amid optimism of containment

The nature of the mpox virus would unlikely overwhelm Singapore’s capacities to contain it, said Dale Fisher, director at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Infectious Disease Emergency Response.

“During Covid-19, it was necessary to create makeshift community isolation facilities and repurpose existing healthcare infrastructure for example, but I can’t see this being necessary for mpox,” Fisher said.

However, one Singapore-based infectious diseases specialist stressed that children were more vulnerable to the new strain of the virus, warning that the virulence of mpox might be greater than anticipated.

“The spread may potentially be fast and furious, with the speed similar to a hand, foot and mouth disease outbreak in a childcare facility,” said Leong Hoe Nam, a specialist at Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, though adding that Covid-like lockdowns were unlikely to curb mpox.

Last week, Singapore’s Health Minister Ong Ye Kung described the situation as “very worrying” and expected Singapore to be among the “first places to find cases because of our flight connections”.

“I would say, in general, this is a very worrying situation, especially for the African continent. But I think we should work on the basis that mpox will arrive in Asia,” he told reporters.

The patient was a 33-year-old Filipino man who had no travel history outside the country, the health department said.

This came shortly after Sweden became the first country outside Africa to report a case of the clade 1b variant, while Pakistan has also reported its first case of mpox though it has not confirmed the strain of the virus.

In Malaysia, all travellers from countries that have reported having mpox are required to monitor their health for 21 days