The Hague, Oct 22 (IANS) The Netherlands has confirmed its first case of a new, more transmissible variant of mpox, Minister for Health, Welfare and Sport Jan Anthonie Bruijn said in a letter to parliament.

The infection, identified on October 17, is the first time the mpox variant 1b has been detected in the country.

“This is the first time that this new mpox-variant has been identified in the Netherlands,” the minister said in the letter. He added that the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) are “closely monitoring the situation.”

The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) reported that the infected man was not vaccinated against mpox and had no recent travel history, Xinhua news agency reported.

The man has been placed in isolation, and the local public health service is conducting source and contact tracing. The minister sought to reassure the public, saying that “the risk of further spread appears to be small.”

Mpox, which can cause painful lesions, fever, and fatigue, spreads primarily through skin-to-skin contact, according to the RIVM.

Mpox, also known as monkeypox, is a viral infectious disease that spreads through close contact. Symptoms include fever, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat, muscle aches, skin rash, and back pain.

Mpox spreads from person to person mainly through close contact with someone who has mpox, including members of a household. Close contact includes skin-to-skin and mouth-to-mouth or mouth-to-skin contact, and it can also include being face-to-face with someone who has mpox (such as talking or breathing close to one another, which can generate infectious respiratory particles).

People with multiple sexual partners are at higher risk of acquiring mpox.

People can also contract mpox from contaminated objects such as clothing or linen, through needle injuries in health care, or in community settings such as tattoo parlours.

During pregnancy or birth, the virus may be passed to the baby. Contracting mpox during pregnancy can be dangerous for the fetus or newborn infant and can lead to loss of the pregnancy, stillbirth, death of the newborn, or complications for the parent.

Animal-to-human transmission of mpox occurs from infected animals to humans from bites or scratches, or during activities such as hunting, skinning, trapping, cooking, playing with carcasses or eating animals. The animal reservoir of the monkeypox virus remains unknown, and further studies are underway.

More research is needed on how mpox spreads during outbreaks in different settings and under different conditions.

–IANS

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