Vietnam reports first monkeypox community transmission case

The Binh Duong Department of Health on Monday said the 22-year-old woman is currently quarantined at the Tan Uyen City medical center.

Authorities have disinfected areas near the patient's home. The Binh Duong Center for Disease Control (CDC) is currently contact tracing people to prevent further infections.

The woman's boyfriend was confirmed by the CDC in the neighboring Dong Nai Province on Sunday to have monkeypox. The man has been determined to be the third monkeypox case in Vietnam and his girlfriend the fourth.

Vietnam's first two cases of monkeypox were confirmed in 2022, but they contracted the virus abroad and were immediately quarantined upon return to Vietnam, so there was no chance of community transmission.

The source of the infection for the third case is unknown, according to the Dong Nai CDC. The man began to display symptoms like fever, chills and blisters on September 17. He went to a private clinic for treatment, but the symptoms did not subside.

On September 22, the patient went to the HCMC Hospital of Dermato Venereology for a diagnosis. His fever was gone, but there were lymph nodes and rashes on several parts of his body. The hospital suspected that the man has monkeypox, and so sent samples to the HCMC Pasteur Institute, and the tests came back positive. The man is currently in quarantine in HCMC.

The man said he was a freelancer, who is often in contact with many people, but there were no foreigners. He returned home in Dong Nai's Xuan Loc District on September 2 and came in contact with four family members. He came in contact with his girlfriend on September 16.

So far, the HCMC CDC has found eight people in close contact with the man, including his girlfriend. The others were found to have stable health and displayed no unusual symptom, and so were instructed to stay home and self-monitor for 21 days.

Waves of monkeypox infections began in May 2022, appearing in countries which never saw the virus before, like the U.S., the U.K., Sweden and Belgium. So far, over 90,000 infected cases have been confirmed. Death rates can be as high as 11%. The World Health Organization (WHO) on July 23, 2022 declared a global health emergency over monkeypox outbreak as infections rose globally.

Symptoms of the disease include rashes, blister, fever, aches and fatigue. The incubation period is between 5-21 days.

Vietnam currently has no vaccine or cure for monkeypox.