Sweden reports first case of new monkeypox strain outside Africa
The World Health Organization on Thursday said a first case of mpox linked to an outbreak in Africa has been identified outside the continent after an infection was confirmed in Sweden. The news comes a day after the WHO declared mpox, also known as monkeypox, a global public health emergency.
Sweden on Thursday announced the first case outside Africa of the more dangerous variant of mpox, which the WHO has declared a global public health emergency.
The country's public health agency confirmed to AFP that it was the same strain of the virus that has surged in the Democratic Republic of Congo since September 2023, known as the Clade 1b subclade.
"A person who sought care" in Stockholm "has been diagnosed with mpox caused by the clade I variant. It is the first case caused by clade I to be diagnosed outside the African continent," the agency said in a statement.
The person was infected during a visit to "the part of Africa where there is a major outbreak of mpox clade I," state epidemiologist Magnus Gisslen said in the statement.
The patient "has received care," Gisslen said. The agency added that Sweden "has a preparedness to diagnose, isolate and treat people with mpox safely."
"The fact that a patient with mpox is treated in the country does not affect the risk to the general population, a risk that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) currently considers very low," it said.
The disease causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.
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