An Mpox epidemic has killed 548 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo as Sweden announces the first case of the disease indicating its spread to outside of Africa.

Since the start of the year, the outbreak of the disease, previously known as monkeypox, has killed 548 people in DR Congo, its health minister said in a statement on Thursday.

“According to the latest epidemiological report, our country has recorded 15,664 potential cases and 548 deaths since the beginning of the year,” Samuel-Roger Kamba said in a separate video message on Thursday.

Kamba said all the 26 provinces of DRC, a nation with 100 million population, are affected by the virus. However, eight provinces are the worst hit provinces.

In related news, Sweden’s public health agency confirmed on Thursday that a variant of Mpox had been found in a patient in the capital city of the country.

Epidemiologist Magnus Gisslen said a person had visited “the part of Africa where there is a significant outbreak of Mpox clade I.”

The person, who was seeking treatment in Stockholm, “was diagnosed with Mpox caused by clade I,” a more contagious and dangerous variant, he said in the statement. “It is the first case caused by clade I to be diagnosed outside the African continent.”

He said the patient had received treatment for the disease.

A surge of Mpox cases have been confirmed among children and adults in more than a dozen countries and a new form of the virus spreading. Few vaccine doses are available on the African continent.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday declared the Mpox outbreak in DRC and other African countries as a “global health emergency”.

WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made the declaration on the advice of an International Health Regulations (IHR) emergency committee.

Mpox, a viral disease, was first discovered in humans in 1970 in present-day DRC formerly known as Zaire.

The virus is transmitted through close physical contact with an infected human or animal.

Earlier this year, scientists reported that the new deadlier variant of Mpox can kill up to 10 percent of those infected by the virus.

Skin rash, fever, enlarged lymph nodes and muscle pain are common symptoms of the disease.