The government said it has confirmed three new cases of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, since last Friday, raising the total caseload in Korea to eight.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) confirmed the sixth case from a person with no history of overseas travel last Friday, and identified two additional patients, who also had no history of overseas travel, on Monday and Tuesday, respectively. 

While health officials believe that all three patients had close contact with the presumed respective source of the virus in Korea within three weeks before the onset of their first symptoms, they have not yet found any links between the patients.

The sixth patient lives in South Jeolla Province and had recently traveled to Busan, while the seventh and eighth patients live in Seoul and have no regional connections.

At a KDCA briefing, Im Sook-young, a senior official at the Central Disease Control Headquarters, said that the presumed virus origin source of the sixth patient is currently unknown.

"The two people met anonymously, so we do not know their names or contact information," Im said. "We are tracking the source of the infection, but it will take some time."

The sixth patient is also known to have had contact with 36 people. 

The source of infection of the other two patients is also under epidemiologic investigation, Im added.

While the number of mpox cases in the U.S. and Europe has been recently declining, the number of cases in neighboring countries such as Japan and Taiwan has been increasing, health authorities noted. 

Last year, only eight cases were reported in Japan. However, as of Wednesday, there have been 98 confirmed cases of the disease this year, with 97 of these cases being domestic.

Im stressed that Korea might also have hidden mpox patients in the local communities.

"We are seeing an increase in voluntary reports from patients after we confirmed the sixth patient, which was the first community case in Korea," Im said.

Mpox has a long incubation period of 21 days, and symptoms often occur in inconspicuous areas, making it difficult to identify without a suspicion report from a medical institution or a voluntary report from a patient.

However, the quarantine authorities believe there is no need to be overly fearful of the virus.

"Unlike Covid-19, Mpox is mostly spread through close contact and is unlikely to cause large-scale outbreaks in the general population," Im said. "While people need to be vigilant, they don't need to be overly anxious."

Mpox is most commonly transmitted through sexual contacts, such as between men who have sex with men, and through contact with skin lesions.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 96.4 percent of sexually transmitted mpox cases have been from males, with 79.2 percent of cases in men aged 18-44 years.