SINGAPORE - Singapore residents holidaying in the African continent during the peak safari season from July to September need not worry about having to be quarantined upon their return home.

Despite the new and potentially more deadly clade Ib strain of the mpox virus rapidly spreading in Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and neighbouring countries Burundi, Central African Republic, Rwanda and Uganda, infectious disease specialists say residents and visitors coming from these places do not need to be quarantined if they are not suffering from any symptoms of the disease.

Mpox symptoms include fever, skin rash and swollen lymph nodes.

All travellers are required to report mpox-related symptoms and travel history on the SG Arrival Card, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.

Mpox, which has been declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Organisation (WHO), “doesn’t seem to spread through casual community contact as Covid-19 did”, said Professor Dale Fisher of the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

He added that quarantine is not necessary at this stage, unless people coming here from African countries have had contact with someone who may have mpox or have been engaging in high-risk behaviour.

Regardless of sexual orientation, persons engaging in high-risk sexual behaviour, such as having multiple or casual sexual partners, are most at risk of infection in the context of the current outbreak.

Dr Barnaby Young, an associate professor at Nanyang Technological University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, said: “While there are concerning features about the current mpox outbreak – including (the fact that) more than half of the cases in DRC have been among children – mpox transmission is mainly through close, direct contact with infected individuals, which travellers can avoid.”

The disease, formerly known as monkeypox, has been on the rise in DRC and neighbouring African countries. According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been more than 27,000 cases and over 1,300 deaths since January 2023 in the current outbreak in the DRC. 

This latest surge of mpox has been of the deadlier strain, clade Ib.

On Aug 14, WHO declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years. However, it stressed that mpox is not the new Covid-19.

International SOS regional medical director for Asia David Teo said each infe...