Surveillance efforts against the “Mpox” virus (monkeypox) are intensifying worldwide, as trials of a new treatment have shown disappointing results against the variant causing the current outbreak.
The Guardian published a report by writer Kat Lay, in which she said that the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control raised its assessment of the risk level of infection with the Impox virus, formerly known as monkeypox, from low to moderate on Friday. This decision came after Sweden reported the first case of infection with the “Clade IP” virus outside Africa.
Pakistan also reported its first case of the MBO virus, and China said it would begin screening travellers for the virus. The UK Health Security Agency said there were no cases of the virus in the UK and the risk was considered low but preparations were underway for any future cases.
The Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention said more imported cases into Europe were “highly likely”.
We must be prepared.
“Given the close links between Europe and Africa, we must be prepared for more cases of the first group,” the writer quoted Pamela Rende Wagner, director of the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, as saying in a statement.
The World Health Organization declared last Wednesday that the increase in cases of the Embox virus is a public health emergency, after cases spread from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to neighboring countries.
The author explained that the virus has two main strains, the second of which was responsible for the global outbreak of the virus in 2022, which mainly affected gay and bisexual people. The first strain is endemic in parts of Africa and has historically had a higher death rate. The second strain, in its mutant form “IB,” appears to be spreading among people in a sustained manner for the first time, through both sexual and non-sexual contact.
More than 14,000 cases of amoeba and 524 deaths have been reported in Africa so far this year, already exceeding last year’s figures. Most of them are in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
A randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the antiviral drug ticoviral failed to reduce the duration of infection with the AMPox virus among children and adults infected with the first type of the virus in the country, according to results announced by the US National Institutes of Health on Thursday.
However, the study’s mortality rate – 1.7% of the 597 participants – was lower than the overall mortality rate of more than 3.6% reported elsewhere in the DRC.
This likely shows the value of supportive medical care, especially in hospitals, the research team said.
Sega Technologies, which makes tecovirimat, said the results suggest greater improvement in people who receive it early in the course of the disease or who have severe disease, which warrants further investigation.
Do more research
The writer stressed that global health experts have called for more research of this kind in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to fill major gaps in scientific understanding of the virus. Dr. Jonas Barnaz, a research fellow specializing in smallpox viruses at the Pirbright Institute, said that there is a big unknown regarding the transmission dynamics of “Clade IB” viruses.
“Is it more transmissible than other clade 1 viruses? Is it better transmitted through sexual contact? There is no evidence that this variant is better transmitted or causes more severe disease than clade LA, however, that may change as we learn more about this new variant,” he said.
Humanitarian officials say more diagnostics, treatments and vaccines need to be shipped to Africa urgently. There are severe shortages of tests, treatments and vaccines across the continent, says Bronwyn Nicol of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. This shortage is severely hampering the ability to contain the outbreak.
65 thousand doses in the short term
Any newly manufactured and purchased doses will take at least six months to reach the DRC, said Dr. Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
She added that the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization is talking to countries with large domestic stockpiles of the vaccine, such as the United States and Japan, and is awaiting a formal request from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to mobilize a program to donate doses, and this path is likely to provide about 65,000 doses in the short term.
According to the writer, the Danish drugmaker Bavaria Nordic, which produces one of the current Impox vaccines, said it is seeking European approval for its vaccine to be used in children aged 12 to 17. The vaccine is approved only for adults, although US regulators issued emergency approval for its use in teenagers during the 2022 outbreak.
The writer concluded the report with the Bavarian company Bavaria Nordic saying on Thursday that it is ready to produce 10 million doses of the vaccine by 2025, but is waiting for countries to submit their requests. It said it has about 500,000 doses in stock.