Sweden reports first case of new mpox strain outside of Africa

Sweden's public health agency has announced the new mpox strain has been detected in the country - marking the first time a case has been detected outside of Africa.

The person became infected during a stay in a part of Africa where a major outbreak of the strain is currently taking place, the statement confirmed.

On Wednesday, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the ongoing outbreak, which is mostly affected the Congo, a global health emergency.

"Sweden has a preparedness to diagnose, isolate and treat people with mpox safely," the public health agency statement continued.

"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 (ECDC) currently considers very low."

The new strain is known as clade 1b, and first emerged in the Democratic Republic of the Congo before spreading to more than a dozen countries in Africa.

Cases are up 160% and deaths are up 19% compared with the same period last year, with over 14,000 cases and 524 deaths recorded in 2024.

WHO confirmed mpox was recently identified for the first time in four East African countries: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda.

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It declared mpox as a global emergency in 2022, after it was detected in more than 70 countries where the disease had not previously been reported.

In 2022's outbreak, fewer than 1% of people died, but the new version of mpox spreading appears to have a death rate of about 3 to 4%.

Before the 2022 outbreak, the disease had mostly been seen in sporadic outbreaks in central and West Africa when people came into close contact with infected wild animals.

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