Runaway tourist’s test result imminent

A German born tourist who attempted to flee before his test is suspected of being the latest monkeypox case, local health authorities in Trat province said yesterday.

The tourist, who was apprehended after the hospital alerted the police, was staying on Koh Chang island in the eastern province.

On Friday he or she visited a private hospital in Muang region, presenting with symptoms similar to those of monkeypox, including rashes on his genitals and hands, said Dr Winai Banchongkan, director associated with Trat Hospital, the particular state-run facility where the tourist was yesterday placed in an isolation unit.

King Chulalongkorn Memorial service Hospital in Bangkok is currently testing an example of the man’s bloodstream for the virus, stated the doctor. The man on Friday refused the required test and ran away, prompting the personal hospital to call in police to detain him for attempting to violate Thailand’s communicable disease control law, said the doctor.

Dr Surachai Chiamkun, Trat’s mouthpiece provincial health chief, said all that local disease control government bodies know is he had travelled from France to Thailand. It is unclear when he arrived.

Thailand on Fri recorded its fourth official case after a Thai woman within Bangkok, who had been within close contact with a number of foreign friends, tested positive.