Monkey pox, first Mpox case in Pakistan after Clade 1 variant found in Sweden

The World Health Organisation announced that more imported cases of monkeypox - Mpox Clade 1 variant - could soon be confirmed in Europe, after Sweden announced the first such case outside Africa on 14 August. "The confirmation of Mpox Clade 1 in Sweden is a clear reflection of the interconnectedness of our world... it is likely that there will be further imported cases of the Clade 1 variant in the European region in the coming days and weeks," the WHO's European regional office said in a statement.

"I believe the situation is serious, but there is no cause for alarm: the risk of infection is low. We are well prepared and the health services have good procedures in place. It is a known disease. There are vaccines and we have vaccines in stock'. This was emphasised by the Swedish Health Minister, Jakob Forssmed, after the announcement of the first case of the Clade 1 variant in the country and in Europe. This was reported by the Swedish news agency Tt.

The latest update on the countries affected by the spread of monkeypox is Pakistan, which recorded its first case of Mpox on 16 August, although it is still to be ascertained whether it is the dangerous Clade1 variant, detected in Sweden. The Ministry of Health in Islamabad says that the sick person came from an unspecified Gulf country, is 34 years old and lives in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The swab was sent for gene testing to a specialised laboratory to establish which strain of Mpox it is. The WHO reported 14,000 cases and 524 deaths in the Democratic Republic of Congo this year.

No alarmism but high guard according to Professor Bassetti, director of the infectious diseases department at the San Martino polyclinic hospital in Genoa. "Now with the case in Sweden we will talk about it. Without scaremongering but making a serious preparation for the problem. The tests are there,' Bassetti told Ansa, 'the same ones that were used in 2022 when the disease arrived. The target changes but we are equipped. We already knew it, today the clinical manifestations are different, the disease is more serious and more virulent and that is why we must be careful and make early diagnoses'. "Now we will all be much more careful," he continued, "with this Clade 1 variant, the epidemiology of monkeypox has changed. Before it referred to people more at risk, now it affects much wider targets. It broadens the spectrum of this disease to other subjects'. "We must,' Bassetti concluded, 'raise awareness worldwide. It is no longer a problem of the People's Republic of Congo'.

From mid-June to the beginning of August, 1,159 patients have already been treated in the facilities supported by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Of these, 431 were serious cases and 728 were uncomplicated cases followed on an outpatient basis. In addition, 6,376 awareness sessions were organised. Follow-up of contact cases: more than 1,530 cases are currently being followed up at home. Since mid-June, an Msf team has been working in the Uvira health zone in South Kivu. "We are supporting treatment for people with severe symptoms at the general referral hospital in Uvira, and follow-up with patients with milder forms of the disease on an outpatient basis, isolating suspected cases," the note reads. In North Kivu, 'we have launched surveillance and awareness-raising activities in the refugee camps in Goma where we are present, and we are strengthening the health structures in terms of triage, isolation, and management of patients with symptoms attributable to Mpox,' the statement continues. In the north-west of the country, two other interventions have been launched: one in the health zone of Bikoro, in the Equator province, and the other in the health zone of Budjala, south of Ubangi.