The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Thursday confirmed that a case of the viral infection mpox in Sweden was linked to an outbreak in Africa, the first sign of its spread outside the continent a day after the WHO declared the disease a global public health emergency.
Swedish health officials said at a press conference that the person was infected while in Africa with the clade Ib type of mpox involved in the recent outbreak. The person is receiving treatment.
The person was infected while staying in a part of Africa where there was a large outbreak of the disease, Olivia Wigzell, director general of the Swedish Public Health Agency, told a press conference.
“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 I,” health and social affairs minister Jakob Forssmed told the press conference.
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“This case in Sweden is a warning call for public health authorities to be vigilant and implement robust surveillance and contact-tracing strategies to detect possible new cases early on,” Dr Jonas Albarnaz, an expert in pox viruses at The Pirbright Institute, said in a statement.
Dr Brian Ferguson of the University of Cambridge said the case in a Swedish traveller was concerning but not surprising, given the severity and spread of the outbreak in Africa.
“There will likely be more here and in other parts of the world as there are currently no mechanisms in place to stop imported cases of mpox happening,” he said.
[ WHO declares mpox a global public health emergency for second time in two yearsOpens in new window ]
The WHO on Wednesday declared the outbreak in Africa a public health emergency of international concern or PHEIC after cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo spread to nearby countries. A PHEIC is WHO’s highest level of alert.
The global vaccine group Gavi told Reuters it has up to $500 million to spend on getting shots to countries affected by the escalating mpox outbreak in Africa.
Both US and Canadian officials have said they have not identified any cases so far.
Clade Ib, the strain of the virus behind the current outbreak, is a new variant of clade I that is endemic in the Congo. Clade Ib appears to spread more easily though routine close contact, including sexual contact.
Clade I mpox tends to cause a higher number of severe infections and have a higher mortality rate than clade II mpox, according to US health officials.
In 2022, WHO declared a public health emergency over an outbreak of mpox caused by clade II, which led to more than 95,000 cases across 115 non-endemic countries. – Reuters
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