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Mpox case in Sweden sets off concerns of wider spread in Europe

A vial of the Jynneos mpox vaccine sits on a table at a pop-up vaccination clinic opened by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health in West Hollywood, California. (Mario Tama/Getty Images/TNS) (Mario Tama)
By Lynsey Chutel, Jenny Gross and Christina Anderson New York Times

LONDON – The announcement that a new version of mpox had been discovered in Sweden this week was the first indication that the disease had slipped out of Africa, where it has caused an escalating crisis in Congo.

The announcement Thursday about the disease formerly known as monkeypox came just a day after the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency, and it confirmed fears that further spread was inevitable. The person with the disease in Sweden had traveled to an area affected by the disease.

The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said it is “highly likely” that more imported cases would be confirmed, in large part because of frequent travel between Europe and Africa. The center advised member countries to increase preparedness and to issue travel advisories recommending that people traveling to affected areas see if they are eligible for vaccination.

Pamela Rendi-Wagner, the ECDC director, warned that as long as the outbreak in Africa was not under control, cases would continue to appear in Europe and North America, too.

“We have to be concerned, even outside Africa, because with the increasing number and the fast spread, the likelihood of the introduction of cases in Europe and the U.S. will increase,” Rendi-Wagner said in an interview Friday.

The ECDC on Friday raised the risk of people in the European Union contracting the new version from “very low” to “low,” but emphasized that people traveling to and from the affected areas in Africa need to take precautions and are at a high risk.

Two doses of the mpox vaccine Jynneos, made by the Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic and used against the 2022 version, should protect against all versions of the virus, experts said.

As with many other infections, most people with healthy immune systems are unlikely to become severely ill with mpox.

The European Union said Wednesday that it would donate more than 175,000 doses of the mpox vaccine to countries in Africa, Bavarian Nordic will donate 40,000 doses that will be distributed by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the United States is donating 50,000 doses. France also said it would donate vaccine to the affected countries in Africa.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.