(123rf)

Health authorities in South Korea identified three new locally acquired mpox cases Monday.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, three South Koreans tested positive for mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, bringing the total cases here to 13.

Korea’s 11th case was confirmed on Friday, and the 12th and 13th were confirmed on Saturday.

The KDCA said the three new cases were locally transmitted, as the infected patients had not traveled overseas in the past three weeks. Epidemiological investigations into recent cases are underway.

Of the 13 total infections so far, eight were locally transmitted mpox cases. As all eight recently infected cases were unrelated to overseas travel, concerns are growing over a massive mpox surge.

“(We advise to be) extra careful about skin-to-skin contact and sexual contact with strangers. If suspicious symptoms appear, please call the KDCA Call Center at 1339 and report the disease,” Ji Young-mi, head of the KDCA, said.

Since the lack of awareness and knowledge of the disease is considered one of the barriers to diagnosis, the agency plans to publish a booklet on how to diagnose mpox and distribute it to medical institutions.

The public does not need to be overly anxious over a massive mpox surge, as the risk of transmission of mpox in the general population is relatively low, the agency said.

The mpox virus spreads through close personal contact with an infected person through contact with their blisters, saliva or other infected bodily fluids.

Symptoms commonly appear seven to 17 days after skin-to-skin contact. They include a fever, headache, muscle aches, swollen glands, chills, a rash and skin lesions filled with fluid that eventually form scabs and fall off.

Transmission is also possible indirectly, through contact with objects that have been in contact with an infected person, such as clothing, bedding and towels they have used.

As the number of confirmed cases due to community transmission has increased, South Korea said Thursday it decided to raise its mpox alert level from the current "Level 1 attention" to "Level 2 caution." Level 2 denotes a rise domestically of new infectious diseases from abroad and the limited spread of infectious diseases of unknown cause or reemergence in Korea.