A day after the World Health Organisation (WHO) proclaimed the mpox outbreaks in eastern Congo and other parts of Africa to be an international emergency, Swedish health officials announced on Thursday that they had discovered the first case of the more contagious form of mpox, which was initially discovered in the eastern Congo.
The patient recently sought medical attention in Stockholm, according to a statement from the Swedish public health office. “In this case a person has been infected during a stay in the part of Africa where there is a major outbreak of (the more infectious mpox),” the agency said.
Magnus Gisslen, a state epidemiologist with the Swedish health agency, said the person had been treated and given “rules of conduct”. “The fact that a patient with mpox is treated in the country does not affect the risk to the general population,” Swedish officials said, adding that experts estimate that risk to be “very low”. They said, however, that occasional imported cases may continue to occur.
Earlier this year, scientists reported the emergence of a new form of the deadlier form of mpox, which can kill up to 10% of people, in a Congolese mining town that they feared might spread more easily. Mpox mostly spreads via close contact with infected people, including through sex.
According to the WHO, this year’s numbers for cases and deaths in over a dozen African nations have already surpassed those of previous year, with over 14,000 cases and 524 deaths. To date, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has accounted for over 96% of all cases and deaths.
With the resources available in wealthy nations like Sweden to contain mpox, scientists believe that if fresh outbreaks connected to the Congo are found, the virus could be contained rather rapidly.
(with inputs from AP)
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