Sweden recorded on Thursday the first case of infection with a more contagious variant of the mpox virus, which has previously spread to several African countries.
Swedish officials said the case was discovered in the Stockholm area and that the person had been infected in Africa with mpox, a clade Ib mpox virus involved in the recent outbreak. The sick person is being monitored by doctors and is undergoing treatment.
Public Health Minister Jakob Forssmed said:
This is, of course, something that we are taking seriously.
Olivia Wigzell of Sweden’s public health authority said there was no danger to the wider public. She said:
In our view, the case does not currently call for additional protection measures. But we are of course following its development closely.
US and Canadian officials said they had not yet identified any cases of the disease. Australian authorities have also not yet confirmed any cases of the new worrisome variety, although the number of smallpox cases is rising, with 35 in the past 15 days.
About 100 cases of infection have been reported in the state of New South Wales since the beginning of June, after just one case in the previous five months. A further 110 smallpox cases have been identified in Victoria and 23 in Queensland since April.
Mpox in Africa
More than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths have been reported in more than a dozen countries in Africa this year, already surpassing last year’s figures, according to the WHO.
One country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, has accounted for more than 96 per cent of all cases and deaths so far.
Monkeypox is a rare viral disease that is potentially dangerous to immunocompromised people. Symptoms include fever, intoxication, enlarged lymph nodes and rash. With a mild course, the illness usually goes away on its own and lasts between 14 and 21 days. The virus has two clades, clade I and clade II. In 2022, an outbreak caused by the clade II clade of the virus occurred in Africa.
Currently, African regions are experiencing an outbreak of clade I, which has a more complicated course. Historically, mpox clade I has only been reported in five countries in Central Africa.
