Until July 28, 85 cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in Sweden. An increase of 8 cases compared to last week. The cases have been reported in several regions, but the majority have been reported in Region Stockholm.
The increase was expected, and the number of cases will continue to increase, according to Anders Sönnerborg, professor of virology at the Karolinska Institute. But with the infection control measures in place, he sees no risk of an uncontrollable development in Sweden.
– Then I think there are some who have very mild symptoms. They can be easy to miss and that is where the big diagnostic challenge is.
May explode globally
From a global perspective, the situation is a bit more unstable, according to Anders Sönnerborg.
– There it will be important in the next few weeks to see if it can explode significantly or stop.
A total of 17,800 cases of monkeypox have been detected in 70 countries, according to the World Health Organization’s latest statistics (July 27). The number of new cases has doubled every two weeks, according to the WHO, which estimates that the number of cases will exceed 27,000 on August 2.
WHO advisory scientists have warned that it may soon be too late to stop the spread, writes Reuters.
The majority of cases, 13,043, have been reported in Europe. Over half of the European cases have been reported from the UK, Germany and France.
– From a global perspective, we don’t know where this ends. Therefore, it is important that vaccines are developed and evaluated so that the outbreak can be controlled, says Anders Sönnerborg.
Vaccination started
Vaccination against monkeypox has started in the metropolitan regions of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. It is people who have been in close contact with people with established infection who are offered vaccination as a preventive measure.
The vaccine helps to reduce the risk of infection and counteracts the risk of getting sick.
– Even if it is a self-healing infection, it is unpleasant to get. But the important thing is that the person exposed to monkeypox does not have physical contact with new people. If he or she refrains from it, the virus will not spread further, says Anders Sönnerholm.
Those affected so far are mainly men between the ages of 20 and 65. Few people have become seriously ill from monkeypox. Five people have died in the current outbreak, all in Africa, according to Reuters.