Korea requires travelers with mpox symptoms arriving from 8 nations to report to health authorities

Korea's health authorities said Tuesday they began requiring people with mpox symptoms who arrived from eight African nations to report to officials, while redesignating mpox as an infectious disease subject to border screening.

Korea's health authorities said Tuesday they began requiring people with mpox symptoms who arrived from eight African nations to report to officials, while redesignating mpox as an infectious disease subject to border screening.

The move comes after the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) vowed last week to ramp up containment measures against the virus, following the World Health Organization's declaration of mpox outbreaks in Africa as a global health emergency.

Under the measure, arrivals who have visited the eight countries — Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Kenya, Congo, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — will be required to report to officials if they show symptoms related to mpox, such as fever, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes

The KDCA will also deploy health officials to the arrival gates for direct flights from Ethiopia and implement supplementary monitoring measures, such as inspecting wastewater from the planes.

As of Aug. 9, South Korea had reported 10 mpox cases this year, a decrease from 151 in 2023, according to the KDCA.

Yonhap