The first case has been confirmed in Region Stockholm, according to the Public Health Agency. It is also the first to be diagnosed outside the African continent.
The infected person has been infected in an area in Africa where a large outbreak of variant clade 1 is ongoing.
The person in Sweden has received both care and guidelines according to current recommendations, says Olivia Wigzell, acting Director-General of the Public Health Agency.
No additional infection control measures
The fact that a patient with mpox is being cared for in the country does not increase the risk for the general population, according to Wigzell.
The case itself does not, in our assessment, require any additional infection control measures at present, but we are of course closely following the development, she says.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classified the outbreak of mpox in Africa as an international health emergency on Wednesday.
The variant of mpox that is now spreading in Africa, called clade 1, is believed to be both more contagious and deadly than clade 2, whose spread took off in 2022 and which is also present in Sweden.
More cases expected in Europe
A worrying factor is that clade 1 can be spread more easily through close contact, and not primarily through sexual contact like the previous variant.
Following the confirmed case in Sweden, WHO is also warning that more imported cases of mpox are likely to be confirmed in Europe soon – "in the coming days and weeks".
"The confirmation of mpox clade 1 in Sweden clearly reflects our interconnected world", writes the organization's European regional office in a statement.
Secured vaccine
Even before the summer, the government instructed the Public Health Agency to secure access to vaccines and medicines against mpox, according to the Minister of Health.
How worried are you?
I take this situation seriously, but there is no reason for widespread concern. The risk of transmission is low. We have good preparedness. Healthcare has good routines for this. It's a known disease. There is a vaccine. We have vaccines in stock, says Forssmed.
But we are following this because there are also uncertainties in this.
The Minister of Health further states that there is no travel warning to the virus-affected countries, but that the Public Health Agency is in contact with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which is ready to quickly introduce one if necessary.
