Sweden first in the western world with the new monkey cup variant

Published 16 August 2024 at 08.06

Foreign. A person who sought treatment in Region Stockholm has been found to have monkeypox (“mpox”) caused by the virus variant clade I. The case is the first caused by this variant to be diagnosed outside the African continent.

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– It concerns a person who has been infected during a stay in a part of Africa where the spread of mpox clade I is ongoing. The person in Sweden who has been confirmed to be infected has received care and rules of conduct, says Magnus Gisslén, state epidemiologist at the Public Health Agency.< /p>

The World Health Organization WHO has just classified the spread of clade I monkeypox in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries as an international threat to human health.

Clade I causes the same basic disease of mpox as clade IIb, the variant that previously spread among homosexuals in Sweden, but is likely linked to a higher risk of more serious course and higher mortality.

The previous global outbreak with the virus variant clade IIb has mainly been spread via sexual contacts, while clade I is to a greater extent now spread through other contact routes – mainly close contacts within the household and then often to children.

However, the WHO notes that the new variant clade 1b, which is now spreading in Africa, also “seems to spread mainly via sexual networks”.

Monkeypox is classified as a public health disease, which means that there is preparedness for infection control measures such as infection tracing, testing and rules of conduct. Sweden also has access to vaccines and antiviral drugs.

– This case does not trigger any additional infection control measures in itself, but we take the outbreak of mpox clade I very seriously. We follow it closely and continuously assess whether new measures are needed, says Magnus Gisslén.

Approximately 300 cases of mpox have previously been confirmed in Sweden, all linked to the global outbreak of mpox caused by the clade IIb virus variant.