A first case of the new variant of monkeypox was identified in France, as indicated this Monday by the country’s Ministry of Health, in a statement that confirmed information from a local newspaper.
The Ministry was informed “of a first human case of clade 1b mpox in the national territory, in Brittany”, in the northwest of France, detailed the statement, transmitted to AFP.
“The reported case refers to a person who has not traveled to central Africa, an area where several clades of the mpox virus have been actively circulating for several months, including clade 1b,” he added.
“However, this person was in contact with two people who returned from central Africa, and investigations are underway to find the source of the contamination and identify all contact persons,” the statement said.
The ministry recalled that four other countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) have reported cases of clade 1b mpox since this summer: Sweden, Germany, the United Kingdom and Belgium.
The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) considers that the risk of mpox clade I infection for the general population in France and Europe is low, the statement underlines.
Symptoms
MPOX is characterized by skin lesions, such as pustules, high fever, and muscle pain. First identified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1970, it remained confined to a dozen African countries for a long time.
But in 2022 it began to spread to the rest of the world, especially to developed countries where the virus had never circulated. There are two simultaneous epidemics underway: one caused by clade 1 in central Africa, mainly affecting children, and another by the new variant, clade 1b, affecting adults in eastern DRC and neighboring countries.
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