Sweden on Thursday reported the first case outside Africa of the more dangerous strain of monkeypox, which the World Health Organization has declared a global public health emergency.

The country's public health agency confirmed to AFP that it is the same strain of the virus that has been present in the Democratic Republic of Congo since September 2023, known as Clade 1b.

“A person who sought medical help” in Stockholm has been diagnosed with smallpox caused by type 1, the agency said in a statement. This is the first case caused by type 1 to be diagnosed outside the African continent.

The person became infected during a visit to “a part of Africa where there is a large outbreak of type 1 smallpox,” state epidemiologist Magnus Gislin said in the statement.

The patient is “being cared for,” Gislen said. The agency added that Sweden is “ready to safely diagnose, isolate and treat people with smallpox.”

“The fact that a smallpox patient is being treated in the country does not affect the risk to the general population, which the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) currently considers to be very low,” he said.

The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed 548 people since the beginning of the year.

The World Health Organization declared the outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and neighboring countries a public health emergency of international concern on Wednesday.

The virus, formerly known as monkeypox, was first discovered in humans in 1970, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

It is an infectious disease caused by a virus that is transmitted to humans through infected animals, but it can also be transmitted from person to person through close physical contact.

The disease causes fever, muscle pain, and large, boil-like skin lesions.