Sweden has reported a case of a more severe strain of mpox, claiming it is the first clade I variant to be detected outside of an ongoing outbreak in African countries.
It was diagnosed in a person who sought care in Stockholm after being infected in an area of Africa where this strain of the virus is spreading, according to the country's public health agency.
The announcement came a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the outbreak of mpox in several African countries constituted a global health emergency.
This was the second declaration in the last two years of mpox as a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
The majority of cases and deaths related to the current outbreak are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), but the virus has been detected in at least 12 other African countries, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).
"The emergence of a new clade of mpox, its rapid spread in eastern DRC, and the reporting of cases in several neighbouring countries are very worrying," said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus earlier this week.
"On top of outbreaks of other mpox clades in DRC and other countries in Africa, it’s clear that a coordinated international response is needed to stop these outbreaks and save lives," he added.
There are two subtypes of the mpox virus. Clade I, which is endemic in central Africa, is thought to cause more severe illness and higher mortality. The 2022 global outbreak, meanwhile, was caused by clade II, which is endemic in West Africa.
The Swedish public health agency added, however, that the patient being treated in the country for the virus "does not affect the risk to the general population".
Around 300 cases of mpox had previously been detected in Sweden linked to the 2022 global outbreak of the virus.
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