The WHO on Thursday said further imported cases of the new, more dangerous mpox strain in Europe were likely, after Sweden announced the first such infection outside Africa in an outbreak that has killed hundreds in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo).
The case recorded in a traveler in Sweden was announced the day after the WHO declared the mpox surge in Africa a public health emergency of international concern — the highest alarm it can sound.
The UN health agency was concerned by the rise in cases and fatalities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and the spread to Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
Photo: AFP
The Swedish Public Health Agency on Thursday said that it had registered a case of the clade 1b subclade — the same new strain of the virus that has surged in the DR Congo since September last year.
“A person who sought care” in Stockholm “has been diagnosed with mpox caused by the clade 1 variant. It is the first case caused by clade I to be diagnosed outside the African continent,” the Swedish agency said in a separate statement.
The person was infected during a visit to “the part of Africa where there is a major outbreak of mpox Clade 1”, Swedish epidemiologist Magnus Gisslen said in the statement.
“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 ... currently considers very low,” the Swedish agency added.
The WHO’s European regional office in Copenhagen said it was discussing with Sweden how best to manage the newly detected case.
“The confirmation of mpox Clade 1 in Sweden is a clear reflection of the interconnectedness of our world,” it said in a statement. “There are likely to be further imported cases of Clade 1 in the European region over the coming days and weeks, and it is imperative that we don’t stigmatise travellers or countries/regions.”
“Travel restrictions and border closures don’t work and should be avoided,” it said.
The outbreak has centered on the DR Congo.
DR Congo Minister of Health Samuel-Roger Kamba in a video message said that the country “has recorded 15,664 potential cases and 548 deaths since the beginning of the year,” with all 26 provinces affected.
The DR Congo’s population is about 100 million.
The DR Congo government had put in place a “national strategic plan for vaccination against mpox,” as well as improving surveillance of the disease at borders and checkpoints, Kamba said.
Formerly called monkeypox, the virus was discovered in 1958 in Denmark in monkeys kept for research.
It was first discovered in humans in 1970 in what is now the DR Congo.
Mpox is an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals, but can also be passed from human to human through close physical contact.
The disease causes fever, muscular aches and large boil-like skin lesions.
The US Department of Health on Wednesday said it would donate 50,000 doses of the US Food and Drug Administration-approved JYNNEOS vaccine to DR Congo.
Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic said it was ready to produce up to 10 million doses of its vaccine targeting mpox by next year.
There are two subtypes of the virus: the more virulent and deadlier clade 1, endemic in the Congo Basin in Central Africa, and clade 2, endemic in West Africa.
In May 2022, mpox infections surged worldwide, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men, due to the clade 2b subclade.
The WHO declared a public health emergency which lasted from July 2022 to May last year. That outbreak, which has now largely subsided, caused about 140 deaths out of about 90,000 cases.
Separately, Pakistan health officials yesterday announced the first case of the virus in the country this year.
The patient is a 34-year-old man and being treated in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said Irshad Roghani, director of public health there.
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