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Sweden became the first country outside the continent to confirm a case of the more easily transmissible mpox Clade 1b, with Pakistan announcing one on Friday
Mpox is stirring fear among countries beyond Africa as well. Europe is rushing to contain an outbreak of a new and more deadly strain of mpox which originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Sweden became the first country outside the continent to confirm a case of the more easily transmissible mpox Clade 1b, with Pakistan announcing one on Friday. The World Health Organization earlier this week declared the spread of the new strain a public health emergency of international concern.
The new strain of mpox started in 2024 from the Democratic Republic of Congo but has now spread to at least nine neighboring countries. The UK and other European countries are on high alert because of international travel. That does not mean that the deadly disease will spread to the UK since the health infrastructure in the country was well developed to diagnose and do contact tracing and also to provide vaccination to people who have been exposed.
Mpox can be passed on by close contact with anyone with the infection and causes fever, muscle aches, and boil-like skin lesions. Experts say the new strain is “associated with a more severe disease and higher mortality rates” than the one that caused the global mpox outbreak in 2022.
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World health leaders say a failure to deal with the outbreak is a risk, not just to Africa, but to the whole world. Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that at least 10 million doses of mpox vaccines will be needed to respond to the epidemic on the continent. But supply is extremely limited in the affected region. For the moment, most of the over 17,000 case report in Africa are in the DRC, but it is yet to receive any vaccines from donors.
