WHO confirms first case of new mpox strain outside Africa

Sweden has recorded the first case of the clade 1 variant of mpox after an individual was diagnosed in Stockholm.

The case of the variant was the first recorded outside the African continent, where there is a major outbreak of mpox clade 1.

Mpox, an infectious disease caused by a virus transmitted to humans by infected animals, has two major types: clade 1 and clade 2.

Clade 1 causes more severe illness and death, killing up to 10 percent of infected persons.

Clade 1 is endemic in Central Africa, while clade 2 caused the global outbreak in 2022, but infections from this type of mpox are less severe.

In a statement on Thursday, Magnus Gisslén, state epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency of Sweden, said the patient became infected during a stay in an area of Africa, experiencing an outbreak of mpox clade 1.

“Sweden has the preparedness to diagnose, isolate, and treat people with mpox safely,” the statement reads.

“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 (ECDC) currently considers very low.

“A new assessment is expected shortly. However, occasional imported cases like the current one may continue to occur.”

The news comes hours after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the mpox outbreak in Africa a public health emergency of international concern.

Since the beginning of this year, more than 15,600 cases and 537 deaths have been recorded, with more than 96 percent of them from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

A new strain, called clade 1b, was detected among sex workers in the remote mining town of Kamituga in the south Kivu province of the DRC in September 2023.

The WHO said clade 1b causes more severe disease than clade 2 with deaths in around 3.6 percent of cases.