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 Mpox after becoming
00:09infected in Africa.
00:11The World Health Organization
00:12confirmed this was the first sign
00:14of Mpox's spread outside
00:16the continent, a day after the
00:18agency declared the disease a
00:19global public health emergency.
00:22The WHO made the call
00:24after cases in the Democratic
00:26Republic of Congo spread to
00:28nearby countries.
00:29The current variant, clade IB,
00:31is believed to cause a more
00:32serious type of Mpox and
00:34appears to spread more easily
00:35through routine close and sexual
00:37contact.
00:38The Mpox virus, formerly known
00:40as monkeypox and related to
00:42smallpox, causes skin lesions,
00:45fever and muscular aches.
00:47There are two vaccines, but they
00:49are in short supply in Africa.