A day after the World Health Organization proclaimed the 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 type of mpox, which was initially discovered in that region.
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.”
According to Swedish officials, “the fact that a patient with mpox is treated in the country does not affect the risk to the general population.” Experts, however, assess that risk to be “very low.” They did note that there might still be sporadic imported cases.
Scientists warned earlier this year of the appearance in a mining town in the Democratic Republic of the Congo of a new strain of the deadlier mpox virus, which can kill up to 10% of people. They feared this strain may spread more readily. Mainly through intimate contact with infected individuals, including sex, mpox is disseminated.