Kinshasa: The Democratic Republic of Congo said on Thursday an mpox outbreak has killed 548 people there this year, as the first case outside Africa of the virus’s more dangerous variant was recorded in a traveller in Sweden.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Wednesday declared the mpox surge in Africa a global public health emergency, worried by the rise in cases in the DRC and the spread to nearby countries.

DRC’s Health Minister Samuel-Roger Kamba said in a video message that the country “has recorded 15,664 potential cases and 548 deaths since the beginning of the year”, with all provinces affected.

Sweden records first case outside Africa

He said the government had put in place a “national strategic plan for vaccination against mpox”, as well as improving surveillance of the disease at borders and checkpoints. The minister said that at government level working groups have been set up to boost contact tracing and help mobilise resources to “maintain control of this epidemic”.

Traveller diagnosed with mpox in Sweden

Sweden’s Public Health Agency said that it had registered a case of the same strain of the virus that has surged in the DRC since September 2023, known as the Clade 1b subclade.

“A person who sought care” in Stockholm “has been diagnosed with mpox caused by the clade I variant. It is the first case caused by clade I to be diagnosed outside the African continent,” the agency said in a separate statement. The person was infected during a visit to “the part of Africa where there is a major outbreak of mpox clade I,” epidemiologist Magnus Gisslen said.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2024