Vietnam’s first monkeypox patient tests negative

The 35-year-old woman no longer has fever and her blisters are beginning to heal, said Le Manh Hung, director of the hospital.

“All close contacts of the patient since she returned to Vietnam have not shown any potential symptom for monkeypox,” he added.

The woman displayed symptoms like fatigue, chills, muscle aches, headaches and coughing, as well as rashes on several body parts from September 18 while she was traveling in Dubai. She was confirmed infected with monkeypox in Ho Chi Minh City after returning on September 22. Viral genome sequencing revealed that she was infected with a monkeypox strain that has circulated throughout many regions of the world since the beginning of this year.

Hung said the disease has not been able to spread to the community, which aligns with other reports around the world saying monkeypox is not easily transmitted among the community. Most people would recover after 10-14 days and would stop being contagious after 21 days, he added.

HCMC authorities have deployed measures to monitor entrants for monkeypox detection and prevention, the municipal Department of Health said.

As of Monday, over 68,000 monkeypox cases have been confirmed in 106 countries and territories around the world. 25 deaths have been recorded.