Mpox (formerly called monkeypox), which was just recently declared as a global health emergency, has now turned up in Pakistan and Sweden.
On Aug. 16, Pakistan’s Health Ministry announced that they had identified a man with symptoms who had just returned from a Southwest Asia country, and they continue to test to determine the nature of the variant. They have ordered officials at border crossings and airports to conduct strict surveillance and collect samples for medical tests if they see symptoms of the disease in any passenger returning from abroad, AP reported.
The Public Health Agency of Sweden (Folkhalsomyndigheten) reported that a person returning from an African country who sought medical care has been diagnosed with the mpox Clade 1 variant. The agency reported: “Clade I causes the same disease as clade IIb, the variant previously found in Sweden, but is likely to be associated with a higher risk of a more severe course of disease and higher mortality. The previous global outbreak of clade IIb has mainly been spread through sexual contact, while clade I is more commonly spread through other contact routes, mainly close contacts within the household and often to children.
