Sweden has confirmed a case of the new mpox variant (Picture: AP)
Sweden has confirmed its first case of the viral monkeypox infection variant known clade I.
The Nordic country’s health officials confirmed today that one case of the ‘more serious variant’ of the virus has been identified, making Sweden the first country outside the African continent to register a case.
Magnus Gisslén, state epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency of Sweden, said: ‘In this case a person has been infected during a stay in the part of Africa where there is a major outbreak of mpox clade I.
‘The person in Sweden who has been confirmed to be infected has received care and rules of conduct.’
It comes after mpox was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organisation for the second time in two years after a new strain was detected in more than a dozen countries.
The new outbreak was first reported after cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo, leading to more than 500 deaths and the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention calling for international help in combating it.
Monkeypox symptoms (Picture: Getty Images)
Jakob Forssmed, the Swedish health and social affairs minister, said in a news conference: ‘We have now also during the afternoon had confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called Clade I.’
Health officials said the patient did not cause a risk to the rest of the population, and the infection was identified as a ‘special event.’
Olivia Wigzel, an acting director general at the Public Health Agency, said the case was ‘the first caused by the virus variant that has been diagnosed outside the African continent.’
The Clade I variant causes the same disease as the earlier variant found in Sweden previously.
However, Clade I is ‘likely to be associated with a higher risk of a more severe course of disease and higher mortality,’ the Public Health Agency said.
The new strain of mpox is causing alarm globally as it can spread through close contact from animals to humans and between people.
Symptoms include fever, chills, headache, exhaustion, swollen lymph nodes, muscle pain and skin rash. If you suspect a monkeypox infection, call a sexual health clinic.
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