Friday, August 16, 2024
Stockholm, Sweden
A person living in the Stockholm area has been diagnosed as a carrier of the more contagious and dangerous mpox virus subtype clade 1, a first outside Africa, the Swedish Public Health Agency announced on Thursday.
Olivia Wigzell, acting head of the Swedish Public Health Agency, told a press conference: โThe affected person was infected during a stay in a region of Africa where there is a major epidemic of mpox subtype clade 1โ.
The public health agency confirmed in a message that this was the more contagious and dangerous mpox variant of subtype clade โ1bโ, which has been re-emerging in the Democratic Republic of Congo since September 2023, with an estimated mortality rate of 3.6%.
โWe believe that Sweden is well prepared to diagnose, isolate and treat people with mpox safely and effectively,โ she added.
โThat one person is treated for mpox in the country does not imply risks for the rest of the population,โ the public health agency stressed in a statement.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) currently considers this risk to be very low, it added.
For its part, the WHO warned on Thursday that other imported cases of mpox were likely to be detected in the future.
The WHO warned on Thursday that further imported cases of mpox were likely to be detected soon in Europe following the report in Sweden.
On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) triggered its highest international alert level in response to the resurgence of mpox cases in Africa.
Clade 1b causes rashes all over the body.
Humaniterre with AFP