Sweden's public health agency says it has recorded the first case of a contagious new variant of Mpox outside the African continent. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization declared Mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years. That follows an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that has since spread to other countries. Well, Mpox, which was previously known as Monkeypox, is transmitted through close contact, and we talk more about it now to Magnus Ghislaine, who's State Epidemiologist at the Public Health Authority in Sweden. Thank you very much for being with us. What infection control measures are currently taking place in Sweden to deal with this issue?

This is a person that has been traveling in the areas where the clade 1 of Mpox is spreading. When coming to Sweden, he was very quickly diagnosed. Closed and isolated, and contact tracing was starting. That is where we are now. There is no indications that we do have any secondary cases right now, but that's the most important thing is to not have a spread from this case to other cases.

Even so, it is alarming, I guess. How prepared do you think Sweden is in terms of treatment capabilities for Mpox?

I think we are very well-prepared, and There are vaccines against Mpox, and we do have antiviral drugs against Mpox. I can say one thing that... This is one case in Sweden, and it is very probable that we will see more cases in Europe in the near and close time. It's important for all countries to be aware that this can happen for people coming from those countries and to take the actions needed.

People will be alarmed by this and maybe see echoes of COVID. But just explain the distinctions and what Mpox actually is and how it's transmitted and spread.

I mean, this is also not a new infection. This is infections that we have known about since 1970s, so they are spreading in the countries. But now there is an increase, mainly in Congo, but also in neighboring countries. It's transmitted by near contact, and we have not that much information on how transmissible it is, but it's in close contacts and household context is probably the most, in those case, the most probable way to a bit the virus. Children has been affected a lot in Congo, and we'll see what happens here, too. But I also must say, the most important thing now is to have the right measures taken in the region in an African countries and getting the resources and vaccines to where we have the large spread of the virus to avoid the spread to the rest of the world and to decrease the problems in the area.

As you say, just to sum up, this is one person in Sweden with Mpox. It's essentially been contained. It doesn't mean that that will necessarily spread just because there is that one person who's come into the country with the disease.

Exactly. We don't have any indications of spread from this person. But of course, that's something that we are looking at very closely together with local authorities. It's very important to avoid the spread within the country.