South Korean health authorities said on Wednesday that the nation’s first two suspected cases of monkeypox involve a South Korean national and a foreigner.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said a foreign national arriving in South Korea on a Monday flight was admitted to a state-designated hospital in Busan on Tuesday.
The person began to show symptoms such as a sore throat, swollen lymph nodes and skin lesions on Sunday. The Busan hospital reported the person as a suspected case at 4 p.m. on Tuesday and has been treating the patient in a quarantine ward.
The second suspected case is a Korean citizen who arrived from Germany at 4 p.m. on Tuesday. The person developed a headache on Saturday and was suffering from a moderate fever, sore throat, asthenia and fatigue as well as skin lesions at the time of arrival. The patient voluntarily reported to the KDCA and was taken to Incheon Medical Center following a short period of quarantine at the airport.
Authorities will look into whether there was any contact with locals by the two cases, particularly the foreigner, who went to a hospital a day after arriving.