Sweden 1st European Country Confirming Mpox
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
STOCKHOLM (Worthy News) – Sweden became Thursday the first European country to confirm a first case of mpox, a day after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the potentially fatal viral infection a “global public health emergency.”
“We have now also during the afternoon had confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called Clade I,” Health and Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forssmed told a news conference.
It was diagnosed in a person who sought care in Stockholm, the capital, after being infected in an area of Africa where this strain of the virus is spreading, explained the Nordic nation’s public health agency.
The discovery highlighted warnings by the WHO, which called the disease a “public health emergency of international concern” or PHEIC.
This was the second such declaration about pox in the last two years.
Mpox, which reportedly killed hundreds in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), can spread through close contact.
Experts say it is usually mild but fatal in rare cases. It causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.
The mpox outbreak comes when the world is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and was expected to add to pressure on health systems worldwide.
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