The Dutch Minister of Public Health, Welfare and Sport, Jan Anthony Brunin, confirmed in a letter to Parliament on October 21, that the Netherlands has recently discovered the first case of infection with the new mutant strain of monkey flu virus "branch Ib".

The "Clade Ib" strain is a mutant strain of the monkeypox virus strain "Clade I". It appeared in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2023 and spread rapidly, and later spread to other countries and regions.

Bruin said in the letter that the case was diagnosed in the Netherlands on October 17. Previously, Spain, the United States and other countries have reported cases of infection with the "branch Ib" strain. The European Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization are closely monitoring the development of the epidemic.

The letter quoted a report from the National Institute of Public Health and Environment of the Netherlands as saying that the infected person was a male who had not been vaccinated against monkeypox, had no recent history of traveling abroad, and had had sex with men. At present, the patient has been isolated, and the relevant regional health departments are carrying out epidemiological investigation and close contact tracking.

Bruin said that the risk of further spread of the epidemic is currently low and the public does not need to worry too much.

Monkeypox is an infectious disease caused by monkeypox virus. It is mainly infected through close contact with monkeypox patients. Symptoms include painful rash, swollen lymph nodes, fever, headache, myalgia, etc. According to the Netherlands National Institute of Public Health and Environment, since the global outbreak of monkeypox in 2022, a total of about 1,300 cases of monkeypox have been reported in the Netherlands.