The Robert Koch Institute announced on Tuesday that Germany has detected an infection with the new mpox variant clade 1b for the first time.

Axar.az reports that the infection was acquired abroad and identified last Friday, according to the institute, which noted that it does not consider the risk to Germany to be elevated but is "monitoring the situation very closely."

Mpox, a viral disease related to smallpox, causes symptoms such as fever, body aches, swollen lymph nodes, and a rash that develops into blisters. It has two primary subtypes: clade 1 and clade 2.

Since May 2022, clade 2 has spread globally, primarily affecting gay and bisexual men in Europe and the United States. In July 2022, the WHO declared an international public health emergency, the highest level of alert regarding its spread.