Written by Stephen J. Boss.
Interesting News / DE COUTUREKRANT – August 25, 2024 – Stockholm – Sweden on Thursday became the first European country to confirm its first case of smallpox, a day after the World Health Organization declared the potentially deadly viral infection a “global public health emergency.”
“We have now also received confirmation this afternoon that we have a case in Sweden of a more serious type of smallpox, which is called clade 1,” Health and Social Affairs Minister Jakob Forsmed told a news conference.
The Scandinavian country’s Public Health Agency said the diagnosis was made in a person who sought medical care in the capital, Stockholm, after being infected in an area of Africa where the strain of the virus is prevalent.
The discovery confirmed warnings from the World Health Organization, which described the disease as a “public health emergency of international concern” or PHEIC. This is the second such statement on smallpox in the past two years.
Smallpox, which has reportedly killed hundreds of people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, can spread through close contact.
Experts say the disease is usually mild, but is fatal in rare cases, causing flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions on the body.
The smallpox outbreak comes at a time when the world is still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, and is expected to place additional pressure on healthcare systems around the world.
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