Swedish health authorities confirmed on 19 May that someone in the Stockholm region had monkey pox. It was Sweden’s first registered case in the middle of a recent outbreak in several countries, and within a few days, claims about the country’s reaction to the disease circulated on social media.

“JUST IN: Swedish health authorities are considering introducing restrictions due to outbreaks of monkey pox”, it was stated in such a May 22 post. “Now it’s starting again.”

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat fake news and misinformation in its news feed. (Read more about our collaboration with Facebook.

With COVID-19 cases and hospital stays again on the risethe latest news about monkey pox may at first glance resemble the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic.

But are monkey pox the next COVID-19, as the Facebook post suggests?

No, according to Sweden’s highest health official.

“There is no reason to link monkey pox to covid-19 and everything that makes people think about, such as fear of the disease and social measures to control it,” says Minister of Health Lena Hallengren, according to a Swedish News Report. “There will be no limits or restrictions on how we live due to monkey pox. There are no plans to do so.”

However, the authorities in Sweden are still concerned about the current outbreak of appox.

Since May 13, there have been cases of monkey pox recorded in countries where the virus does not normally exist, including the United States, Canada and several European countries. The disease is considered rareand surveys in the confirmed and probable cases of monkey pox is ongoing.

At the beginning of May 25, Sweden had confirmed a case of smallpox, and the United States had confirmed two cases, according to Global.Healthan organization that tracks data on infectious diseases.

After the country’s first confirmed case, Sweden classified monkey pox as a disease that is dangerous to public health and which is subject to mandatory contact tracking, according to the Public Health Agency. website and a Report from The Local, a Swedish news organization.

Hallengren told me Swedish daily newspapera daily newspaper published in Stockholm, that monkey pox was given that classification so that those infected would be legally obliged to report it to the authorities, which makes it easier to detect the virus and limit its spread.

Sweden currently classifies a number of other diseases in the same way, Including bird flu, chlamydia, cholera, gonorrhea, HIV, rabies and syphilis.

As of May 25, COVID-19 was classified in Sweden as “unoccupied for mandatory contact tracking”, but it was not actively classified as “dangerous to public health”. Sweden downgraded COVID-19 classification from 1 April.

Symptoms of monkey pox include rash, fever, headache, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes. People who have symptoms of monkey pox and those with whom they have had close contact shall Be aware of unusual rashes or lesions that develop and contact your healthcare provider, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Our decision

A picture on Facebook claimed that Swedish health authorities “are considering introducing restrictions due to outbreaks of smallpox.”

While Sweden took measures to classify monkey pox as dangerous and ensure that cases were reported for contact tracking purposes, the country’s top health official said that there are currently no plans to introduce “limits or restrictions on how we live due to monkey pox”.

We rate this statement as false.

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