AN EU country has confirmed the first case of mpox outside Africa as the WHO declared a global emergency over the ultra-deadly virus strain. Sweden's public health agency said that the person became infected during a stay in an area within the continent where there is currently a major outbreak of mpox Clade I. It comes just hours after the WHO declared mutant mpox a global health emergency after its rapid spread to at least 13 countries.
The highly contagious disease has already killed at least 500 people and infected 13,700 during an initial outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo ( DRC ). The virus - formally known as monkeypox - has spread to numerous countries in Africa and scientists are concerned about how fast a new variant of the disease is spreading and its high fatality rate. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the potential for further spread within Africa and beyond "is very worrying".
"A co-ordinated international response is essential to stop this outbreak and save lives," he said. Mpox is transmitted through close contact, such as sex, skin-to-skin contact and talking or breathing close to another person. There are two main types of mpox - clade 1 and clade 2.
A previous mpox public health emergency, declared in 2022, was caused by the relatively mild clade 2. Most read in Health However, this time it is the far more deadly clade 1 variant that is surging. It has a fatality rate of around five per cent in adults and 10 per cent in children, compared to three per cent for its predecessor.
In April, alarm bells were raised when scientists found a new easier-to-catch strain of mpox called clade 1b which had “pandemic potential” in Kamituga , a small mining town in the DRC. Doctor Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, from the WHO, warned: "In the past month, about 90 cases of clade 1b have been reported in four countries neighbouring the DRC that have not reported mpox before: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. "But we are not dealing with one outbreak of one clade – we are dealing with several outbreaks of different clades in different countries with different modes of transmission and different levels of risk.
" WHO'S labelling of a “public health emergency of international concern” is meant to encourage member countries to begin preparing for the virus. This could entail the sharing of vaccines and treatments with poorer nations. Dr Josie Golding, from the Wellcome Trust, said it was a "strong signal", while Emory University's Dr Boghuma Titanji said the move "underscores the gravity of the crisis".
.
