WHO calls for increased surveillance, sharing of data, vaccines to combat monkeypox outbreak

Geneva: A day after Sweden confirmed the first case of a more contagious monkeypox variant outside Africa, the World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged affected countries to work together to tackle the monkeypox outbreak and called on all nations to address the current outbreak.

The WHO Director-General emphasized the need for enhanced surveillance, data sharing, and collaboration to combat the transmission of the virus.

"Identification of the first #mpox clade 1b infection in Sweden underscores the need for affected countries to tackle the virus together," the WHO director-general said on X

We encourage all countries to enhance surveillance, share data, and work to better understand the transmission; share tools like vaccines; and apply lessons learned from prior public health emergencies of international concern in addressing the current outbreak," he added.

Recently, Sweden confirmed the first case of mpox Clade I, a viral infection that spreads through close contact and is a more dangerous variant of the mpox disease, Al Jazeera reported.

The Swedish government announced this on Thursday, marking the first case of the variant outside of Africa.

"We have now also during the afternoon had confirmation that we have one case in Sweden of the more grave type of mpox, the one called Clade I," Health and Social Affairs Minister, Jakob Forssmed told a news conference on Thursday.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday declared mpox 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 confirmed its first monkeypox case of the year after a man who recently returned from Saudi Arabia tested positive for the virus, ARY News reported citing the Ministry of Health.

The 34-year-old male resident of Mardan arrived in Pakistan on August 3 and developed symptoms shortly after arriving in Peshawar and reached out to the hospital for testing.

The diagnosis was confirmed by Khyber Medical University in Peshawar, as per ARY News.

His positive diagnosis was confirmed on August 13, marking the first reported case of monkeypox in Pakistan for 2024.