Is Mpox The Next COVID-19? US Readies Vaccines As First Case Outside Africa Is Confirmed
U.S. officials are gearing up for the possible arrival of a deadlier strain of the mpox, previously known as monkeypox, as the first case of the virus outside of Africa was reported in Sweden.
After the World Health Organization declared a new fast-spreading mpox outbreak to be a global public health emergency Wednesday, the U.S. urged its residents to take precautions and announced that it would donate 50,000 mpox vaccine doses to Congo, which has seen thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths just this year.
No cases of the new strain, mpox clade Ib, have been reported in the U.S. thus far, but the U.S. CDC has recommended vaccinations for those who are exposed to mpox or people 18 and older with risk factors for the disease. These include men who have sex with men as well as transgender and nonbinary people, according to USA Today.
On Thursday, Sweden announced that it confirmed its first case of the new mpox strain causing the outbreak in Congo and other African nations, Reuters reported.
Swedish health officials said the person is currently receiving treatment for mpox clade Ib, which the person contracted while in Africa.
"The emergence of a case on the European continent could spur rapid international spread of mpox," public health expert and Georgetown Law professor Lawrence Gostin said Thursday.
He added, "A case in Sweden most likely means dozens of undetected cases in Europe."
Mpox can spread via kissing, sex or other forms of close contact as well as contaminated materials like needles, according to WHO.
It has two clades or types -- I and II -- and causes flu-like symptoms and a painful or itchy rash with raised lesions. Most cases are not life-threatening, but mpox can kill.
The "less severe" mpox clade II was responsible for the previous multi-country outbreak that was declared a global health emergency from July 2022 to May 2023.
Since 2022, the U.S. has reported more than 32,000 infections and 58 deaths due to clade II mpox. Most of those who contracted the virus were men who had sex with men, according to USA Today.
The new case in Sweden and the recent outbreak in Africa are attributed to mpox clade I, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said causes "more severe illness and deaths." The clade Ib variant also appears to spread more easily than previous strains.
On Wednesday, the WHO declared mpox to be a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) -- its highest level of alert -- following the rapid spread of the new clade Ib variant in Congo and its neighboring countries.
The WHO last declared a PHEIC for the COVID-19 pandemic and the previous mpox outbreak of 2022.
The organization said more than 14,000 mpox cases and 524 deaths have already been reported in Congo so far this year, surpassing last year's total.
In the past month, around 90 cases of clade 1b were detected in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda -- countries that have never reported mpox.
Despite the growing number of cases in Africa and the emergence of a case in Europe, mpox is not expected to become a global pandemic as massive as COVID-19 was.
The Globe and Mail's André Picard noted that countries are more prepared for the mpox, which was first discovered in humans in the '70s and for which vaccines have already been developed.
Compared to COVID-19, which spreads via droplet transmission, mpox doesn't spread as fast or as readily and is "easier to prevent and contain."
