New Delhi: A day after Sweden confirmed the first case of the more infectious monkeypox variant outside Africa, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged affected countries to work together to combat the monkeypox outbreak and called on all countries to tackle the current outbreak.
The Director-General of the World Health Organisation stressed the need for enhanced surveillance, data sharing and collaboration to combat the spread of the ampoxvirus infection.
“The identification of the first #mpox clade 1b infection in Sweden underlines the need for affected countries to tackle the virus together,” the WHO Director-General said. “We encourage all countries to enhance surveillance, share data and work to better understand transmission, share tools such as vaccines, and apply lessons learned.” public health emergencies “There is a matter of concern internationally about the handling of the current pandemic,” he said.
Recently, the first case of ampox clade I was confirmed in Sweden, Al Jazeera reports. This is a viral infection that spreads through close contact and is a more dangerous form of ampox disease.
The Swedish government announced it on Thursday, marking the first case of the variant outside Africa.
“We have confirmed this afternoon that a case of the more severe type of ampox, called clade I, has been detected in Sweden,” Health and Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forsmed told a press conference on Thursday.
The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared ampox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has spread to other countries.
Following this, Pakistan also reported its first monkeypox case this year after a man who recently returned from Saudi Arabia tested positive for the virus, ARY News quoted the Health Ministry as saying.
The 34-year-old man, a resident of Mardan, arrived in Pakistan on August 3 and developed symptoms shortly after reaching Peshawar, following which he went to a hospital for testing.
According to ARY News, the disease was confirmed by the Peshawar-based Khyber Medical University.
His positive diagnosis was confirmed on August 13, marking the first case of monkeypox in Pakistan for 2024.
