Mpox declared a global health emergency as first case is detected outside Africa
The World Health Organisation has confirmed a case of the viral infection mpox in Sweden is linked to the African outbreak, the first sign of its spread outside the continent a day after the agency declared the disease a global public health emergency.
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00:00The potential for further spread
00:02within Africa and beyond
00:04is very worrying.
00:06A person in Sweden has been
00:07diagnosed with M-Pox after becoming
00:09infected in Africa.
00:11The World Health Organization
00:12confirmed this was the first sign of
00:14M-Pox's spread outside the continent
00:17a day after the agency declared
00:19the disease a global public health
00:21emergency.
00:22The WHO made the call
00:24after cases in the Democratic Republic
00:26of Congo spread to nearby countries.
00:29The current variant, clade IB,
00:31is believed to cause a more serious
00:33type of M-Pox and appears
00:34to spread more easily through routine
00:36close and sexual contact.
00:38The M-Pox virus, formerly known
00:40as monkeypox and related to smallpox,
00:43causes skin lesions, fever
00:45and muscular aches.
00:47There are two vaccines, but they are
00:49in short supply in Africa.