SINGAPORE: The hotel room where Singapore’s first monkeypox patient was staying at has been disinfected, a spokesman for Hotel 81 Orchid said in a statement on Wednesday (May 15).
The patient, a 38-year-old Nigerian national, was staying at the hotel before he was hospitalised. He is suspected to have contracted the rare virus from eating bush meat in Nigeria.
READ: Singapore confirms first case of monkeypox, patient’s close contacts quarantined
READ: Monkeypox case in Singapore: Guests unfazed at Hotel 81 where patient stayed
The spokesman for the hotel said the Ministry of Health (MOH) had informed them on May 9 that one of their customers had been diagnosed with monkeypox.
“While MOH has indicated that the possibility of transmission is low, as a precaution, we immediately closed off the level completely where the said guest’s room is located,” the spokesman added.
“We have worked with MOH and the National Environment Agency (NEA) to disinfect the hotel room where the patient had stayed.”
Four staff members who were identified as having made close contact with the patient are also under quarantine. The spokesman said the hotel “will continue to work in full cooperation” with authorities.
On Tuesday, MOH said 23 persons identified as close contacts of the patient have been quarantined. This includes five Singapore residents, the ministry added.
The other 18 are from Britain, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Nigeria and Vietnam, and most were at the workshop at 3 Church Street that the patient had attended.
READ: Monkeypox case: 5 Singapore residents among those quarantined
All of them showed no symptoms as of Monday evening, said MOH.
Monkeypox can be spread through close contact with the blood, bodily fluids or lesions of infected animals such as rodents and monkeys. It can also be contracted by eating improperly cooked meat of such animals.
Human-to-human transmission can occur through close contact with an infected person or with objects recently contaminated by their bodily fluids.
Symptoms include lesions, fever, muscle ache, swollen lymph nodes and chills.
MOH added that the disease is usually self-limiting, with most patients recovering within two to three weeks.
READ: First monkeypox case in Singapore: What you need to know about the disease
The Nigerian patient arrived in Singapore on Apr 28 and developed symptoms two days later. He was tested positive for the virus on May 8.
He is currently being treated in an isolation ward at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases. MOH said on Tuesday that he was “recovering well and in a stable condition”.
