Sweden reports first case of more infectious mpox variant outside Africa

Sweden's public health agency said on Thursday that the country had recorded a first known case of the newer mpox variant monkeypox virus clade 1 outside Africa. 

The news comes a day after the WHO said this strain represented a public health emergency of international concern. 

"We have now also during the afternoon had confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called clade 1," Health and Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forssmed told a news conference. 

Person had traveled to at-risk area

The clade 1b strain of the virus has been spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo since roughly September last year. 

The person in Sweden was infected during a visit to "the part of Africa where there is a major outbreak of mpox clade 1," state epidemiologist Magnus Gisslen said in an official statement. 

The patient has "received care," Gisslen said.

The agency said Sweden "is prepared 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 Center for Disease Prevention and Control currently considers very low," it said.

What is mpox? 

Mpox was first discovered in humans in the 1970s in what is now the DRC. The disease originates in monkeys, and was previously known as monkeypox. 

It causes symptoms including fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions. Vaccines exist, at least to counter some strains.

While it originally spread to humans from animals, it can be passed between humans via close physical contact.

The WHO on Wednesday declared the outbreak in DRC and neighboring countries as a public health emergency of international concern. It's the second time the WHO has taken this step with mpox, having declared a 2022 outbreak to be of international concern.

DRC minister says 548 have died this year

The DRC's Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said in a video message on Thursday that the country "has recorded 15,664 potential cases and 548 deaths since the beginning of the year," with all provinces affected. 

The most affected provinces were South Kivu, North Kivu, Tshopo, Equateur, North Ubangi, Tshuapa, Mongala and Sankuru, Kamba said.

DRC, with a population of almost 100 million, is made up of 26 provinces in all. 

He said the government had put in place a "national strategic plan for vaccination against mpox," as well as improving surveillance for the disease at borders and checkpoints. 

Kamba said the government had set up working groups to boost contact tracing and try to mobilize other resources to "maintain control of this epidemic."