SINGAPORE – Despite the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaring mpox a global public health emergency on Wednesday (Aug 14), the Ministry of Health (MOH) said the immediate public health risk of the outbreak in Africa to Singapore is assessed to be low.

“While there is cross-border spread of a potentially more severe mpox clade I in parts of Central and East Africa, the outbreak has thus far remained within the African continent, with no reported cases of clade I exported out of the African continent,” the ministry said on Aug 15.

Singapore has had 10 cases of mpox since January 2024, which MOH confirmed were all from the milder form of the virus, known as clade II.

Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.

There were 32 cases here in 2023, and 18 cases in 2022 from the time reporting of the disease started at the end of June that year.

To date, all infections detected in Singapore have been the milder clade II infections, mostly coming during the 2022-2023 global outbreak.

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