A person who sought care in Region Stockholm has been found to have mpox caused by the virus variant clade I. The case is the first caused by clade I that has been diagnosed outside the African continent.
– 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 Authority.
The World Health Organization WHO has classified the spread of mpox clade I 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 occurred in Sweden, but is likely linked to a higher risk of more severe course and higher mortality. The previous global outbreak with the virus variant Clade IIb was mainly spread via sexual contacts, while clade I is now spread to a greater extent through other contact routes, mainly close contacts within the household and then often to children.
Sweden has a preparedness to diagnose, isolate and care for people with mpox in a safe way. The fact that a patient with mpox is treated in the country does not affect the risk to the population at large, a risk that the European Infection Control Authority ECDC currently assesses as very low. A new assessment is expected shortly. However, individual import cases such as the one currently in question may also occur in the future.
Active infection control measures
Mpox is classified as a disease of general danger, which means that there is preparedness for infection prevention measures such as infection tracking, testing and rules of conduct. Sweden also has access to vaccines and antiviral drugs.
– This case does not cause any further 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.
About 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.
