OAN Staff Blake Wolf
4:18 PM – Thursday, August 15, 2024
Swedish health officials have announced the first infection of a new potent strain of Monkeypox (mpox) in the country, which marks the first official case outside of Africa.
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A new Mpox strain, known as “Clade 1b,” has been spreading across multiple countries in Africa, amounting to 14,000 cases and over 500 deaths on the continent this year, according to Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the disease a “global public health emergency” as the virus continues to mutate and spread.
The infected individual in Sweden reportedly contracted the virus after visiting Africa, in a region where the disease is prevalent.
“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 1,” said Jakob Forssmed, the Health and Social Affairs Minister.
“This case is the first caused by Clade 1 that has been diagnosed outside the African continent. The affected person has also been infected during a stay in an area of Africa where there is a large outbreak of mpox Clade 1,” stated Oliva Wigzell, director-general of the Swedish Public Health Agency.
Health experts are now worried of the potential for the new strain to spread all throughout Europe.
The emergence of a case on the European continent could spur “rapid international spread of mpox,” according to Lawrence Gostin, a public health expert and professor at Georgetown Law. “A case in Sweden most likely means dozens of undetected cases in Europe.”
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