Sweden has confirmed its first case of the more dangerous variant of mpox (formerly known as monkeypox), marking the first reported infection of this strain outside Africa. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared this variant a global public health emergency just a day before the Swedish case was identified.
The Swedish Public Health Agency announced that the infected individual, who sought medical care in Stockholm, had contracted the Clade 1b subclade of the mpox virus. This strain has been responsible for a severe outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) since September 2023, which has resulted in 548 deaths so far this year.
State epidemiologist Magnus Gisslen confirmed that the patient was infected during a visit to a region in Africa where the Clade 1b outbreak is ongoing. The individual has received medical care, and Swedish health authorities have assured the public that the country is well-prepared to diagnose, isolate, and treat mpox cases safely. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) currently assesses the risk to the general population as very low.
This development underscores the global spread of the Clade 1b variant, which has already prompted the WHO to classify the outbreak in the DRC and neighboring countries as a public health emergency of international concern. The mpox virus, first identified in humans in 1970 in the DRC, is typically transmitted from animals to humans but can also spread through close physical contact between individuals.
