World Health Organization chief calls for countries to work together to stop transmission
Academics have expressed concern over the news that someone in Europe has been diagnosed with a new, deadlier subtype of the Mpox virus, which has killed hundreds of people in Africa.
On 15 August, the Public Health Agency of Sweden—whose headquarters is pictured—said a person who sought medical care in Stockholm had been diagnosed with the ‘clade 1’ variant after becoming infected during a stay in Africa where there is a major outbreak.
It came just after the World Health Organization declared the rapid spreading of Mpox in Africa a public health emergency of international concern, in part due to the rise of the new variant. The disease can spread between people through close contact.
Need for vigilance
Jonas Albarnaz, a research fellow specialising in pox viruses at The Pirbright Institute in the UK, said: “This news of a case of clade 1 Mpox in Sweden is concerning.”
He said it indicated the spread of the variant in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could be more widespread than was previously known. He also flagged that this variant is associated with more severe disease and greater chance of death.
“[It] is hard to predict whether we will see further cases of clade 1 Mpox outside of Africa, but this case in Sweden is a warning call for public health authorities to be vigilant and implement robust surveillance and contact-tracing strategies to detect possible new cases early on,” Albarnaz added.
Brian Ferguson, associate professor of Immunology at the University of Cambridge, said the announcement was “clearly a concerning development”. But he said it was “not surprising—given the severity and spread of the outbreak in Africa—that travel between continents has brought this case to Europe.”
Call to work together
World Health Organization director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for “all countries” to enhance surveillance, share data, work to better understand the transmission of the disease and share vaccines”.
“Identification of the first mpox clade 1b infection in Sweden underscores the need for affected countries to tackle the virus together,” he said.
There has been a recent surge of Mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, spreading to other African countries. According to the WHO, more than 100 laboratory-confirmed cases of the clade have been detected in four countries that had not previously reported Mpox: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.
Low risk for now
The Public Health Agency of Sweden said: “Sweden has a preparedness to diagnose, isolate and treat people with Mpox safely.
“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 currently considers very low.
“A new assessment is expected shortly. However, occasional imported cases like the current one may continue to occur.”