Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jul-Aug:54:102597.
doi: 10.1016/j.tmaid.2023.102597. Epub 2023 May 30.

The silent, rapidly unfolding threat of mpox spread via international travel to Southeast Asia: Are we ready?

Wasin Matsee  1 , Sakarn Charoensakulchai  2 , I Made Ady Wirawan  3 , Hisham A Imad  4
Affiliations

The silent, rapidly unfolding threat of mpox spread via international travel to Southeast Asia: Are we ready?

Wasin Matsee et al. Travel Med Infect Dis. 2023 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

The 2022 mpox (monkeypox) outbreak has been surprisingly large and has raised several novel questions about this disease. New information, such as atypical clinical manifestations and transmission via sexual activities, have been identified. These pose a potential risk of widespread outbreaks due to unusual clinical manifestations and failure to consider mpox as a diagnosis by physicians and the sexual behaviours of some tourists in Southeast Asia. Since Southeast Asia is a popular tourist destination, there is substantial potential for the silent spread of mpox in this region. Consequently, there is an urgent need for effective surveillance measures at points of entry of international travelers to identify suspected cases and their close contacts in order to limit the spread of mpox in Southeast Asia.

Keywords: International traveller; Monkeypox; Sex tourism; Southeast Asia; Transmission; mpox.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that there are no competing interests.

References

    1. Bunge E.M., Hoet B., Chen L., Lienert F., Weidenthaler H., Baer L.R., et al. The changing epidemiology of human monkeypox—a potential threat? A systematic review. PLoS Neglected Trop Dis. 2022;16(2) - PMC - PubMed
    1. Center for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) Update: multistate outbreak of monkeypox--Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin, 2003. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2003;52(24):561–564. - PubMed
    1. Angelo K.M., Petersen B.W., Hamer D.H., Schwartz E., Brunette G. Monkeypox transmission among international travellers-serious monkey business? J Trav Med. 2019;26 doi: 10.1093/jtm/taz002. taz002. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Thornhill J.P., Barkati S., Walmsley S., Rockstroh J., Antinori A., Harrison L.B., et al. Monkeypox virus infection in humans across 16 countries—april–June 2022. N Engl J Med. 2022;387(8):679–691. - PubMed
    1. Patel A., Bilinska J., Tam J.C., Fontoura D.D.S., Mason C.Y., Daunt A., et al. Clinical features and novel presentations of human monkeypox in a central London centre during the 2022 outbreak: descriptive case series. BMJ. 2022:378. - PMC - PubMed