France's health ministry confirmed its first case of a new mpox virus. The detection comes just weeks after the World Health Organization upheld its highest alert level in response to the ongoing epidemic.

French health officials announced on Tuesday its first case of a dangerous new strain of the mpox virus that has created havoc in central Africa.

France reported its first case of a new strain of mpox that has ravaged Central Africa over the past year, in a patient who had not travelled to the hotspot region. The patient in the French region of Brittany had been in contact with two people who travelled from Central Africa.