Mapped: Which countries have reported mpox cases so far?

A new, potentially more deadly strain of the virus is rapidly spreading within Africa and has been discovered in Asia and Europe.

The mpox virus is spreading internationally, and more countries, some very far from the initial location of the outbreak in East Africa, have confirmed cases of a new and potentially deadlier strain in the past week.

So far, four countries – Sweden, Thailand, Philippines and Pakistan – have reported mpox cases outside the African continent. Fourteen countries in Africa have reported cases.

The World Health Organization (WHO) stated last week that the virus has become a “public health emergency of international concern”. While the WHO has been at pains to emphasise that mpox is “not the new COVID“, this is the second emergency alert relating to mpox from the global health agency in two years.

The current outbreak has been triggered by Clade 1, believed to be a more serious variant of the mpox virus than has appeared before and which can spread through skin-to-skin contact.

Mpox has been spreading in African countries since 2022 and was originally traced to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In 2023, a new strain of the Clade 1 variant was discovered in the country – known as Clade 1b. African countries are reporting both Clade 1 and Clade 1b strains.

Simultaneously, a different outbreak of the virus’s earlier Clade 2 variant is also spreading although at much lower levels.

The Clade 2 strain caused a multicountry mpox outbreak in 2022, which spread mainly via sexual contact. Cases of that strain had been reported in more than 100 countries by last month.

Clade 2 is believed to cause milder infections. The fatality rate is 0.2 percent compared with 3.9 percent for Clade 1. The WHO