Australia has recorded its first case of the mpox variant that typically causes more serious illness, reports SBS News

The Australian Centre for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed a case of mpox clade 1b in NSW earlier this month—the first, and so far only, case of this variant in Australia.

The case was a returned traveler, and the risk of further transmission was low, a spokesperson for the federal Department of Health said.

A spokesperson for the New South Wales (NSW) Health said the case was a man who contracted the virus while holidaying in Thailand.

The spokesperson said the man had developed symptoms after arriving back in Australia and has since recovered.

Australia’s Chief Medical Officer Tony Lawler said the country had already taken strong measures to contain the risk of mpox spreading in the country.

All cases in Australia are being monitored by state and territory health departments. Precautions are being taken to ensure they can respond quickly to an outbreak if necessary, he said.

From  January 1, 2022 to  April 30, 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) received reports of 142,151 cases of mpox and 328 deaths from it in 133 countries.

The global health emergency due to the mpox epidemic was initially in effect from July 2022 to  May 11, 2023, and it was lifted due to a decline in cases.

But on August 14, 2024, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus reaffirmed the emergency due to an outbreak in Africa.

Mpox is a viral disease that occurs mainly in remote areas of Central and West Africa, near tropical forests. The first case of animal-to-human transmission of this disease was reported in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.