FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AFP) — Sierra Leone has reported its first confirmed case of mpox since the world’s highest alert level for the potentially deadly viral disease was raised last year.

“The patient is a 27-year-old man from the rural district of the Western Zone,” near the capital Freetown, the National Public Health Agency stated in a social media post.

“Health teams are actively tracing and investigating to identify potential exposed persons and to prevent further spread,” it said.

The agency added tests had confirmed the case on January 10 but did not specify the variant affecting the patient.

Mpox is caused by a virus from the same family as the smallpox, manifesting itself through a high fever and skin lesions, called vesicles.

First identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1970, the disease had generally been confined to a dozen African countries but began to spread more widely in 2022, reaching developed countries where the virus had never previously circulated.

The World Health Organization declared its highest alert level in 2024.

Sierra Leonean health authorities say they swiftly activated their response, placing the patient in isolated care.

His contacts will be monitored for 21 days with surveillance stepped up in areas he visited.

A public awareness campaign has been launched and health workers are being issued with protective equipment and trained in prevention techniques.

Sierra Leone was one of the countries hardest hit by Ebola, which ravaged west Africa a decade ago in an epidemic killing some 4,000 people, including nearly seven per cent of health workers, between 2014 and 2016.