By Stefan J. Bos 

Europe’s health agency warned Friday that it is “highly likely” that Europe will see more imported cases of mpox.

Officials expressed concern after a first case of a more severe mpox strain spreading in Africa was detected in Sweden.

Sweden’s Health and Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forssmed said: “Now we received also during the afternoon, confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called Clade I.“

He added that “Of course this is something we take seriously. At the same time, this is a job that our healthcare and the regional infection prevention agencies can and have routines and systems for to handle.”

Swedish authorities said the patient was infected during a stay in a part of Africa where Clade 1 was circulating and was diagnosed with that variant after seeking care in the Stockholm region. 

African concerned 

Mpox has been spreading since last year in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and has crossed into several African countries. 

The virus has so far killed more than 500 people, mainly in the DRC. 

That prompted the secretary general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to declare a global emergency. “With more than 14,000 cases and 524 deaths, the situation constitutes a public health emergency of international concern,” he said.

Experts say mpox can spread through close contact such as sexual encounters. They explain that it is usually mild but fatal in rare cases. 

It causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body. 

Doctors say that for most patients with mpox who have intact immune systems and don’t have a skin disease, supportive care and pain control will help. 

European transmissions 

However, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said that “the likelihood of sustained transmission in Europe is very low if imported cases are diagnosed quickly and measures are taken to control them.”

This is the second declared global emergency of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox, within two years.

The 2022 outbreak mostly affected men who have sex with men, but the current one is different. 

Experts say the DRC Clade 1 cases are primarily among children contracting mpox through contact with infected animals or inside their households. 

Congolese children are viewed at higher risk as they live in crowded households or displacement camps in a conflict-ridden nation where it is harder for patients to self-isolate or seek medical care.