More imported cases of the new strain of the mpox virus will appear in Europe in the coming weeks, but the risk of permanent transmission remains low, the director of the European Agency for Disease Prevention said yesterday.
Yesterday, that agency raised the risk assessment for sporadic cases of the Cladus 1 mpox strain in Europe to moderate. The risk was high for travelers to affected areas in Africa who were in close contact with people there, and moderate for their contacts.
The risk to the general population has increased from very low to low, the agency said.
“There will be more cases in the coming weeks. That is the expectation... But in terms of the risk to the general European population, we have to say that our assessment is that the risk is currently very low," Director of the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) Pamela Randi-Wagner told Reuters.
She called on European countries to step up preparedness and raise awareness to prevent further spread of the virus, also known as monkeypox.
An outbreak of mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, caused by two different forms of mpox, an endemic form and a new strain known as clade 1b, has caused global concern after it spread to several countries in Africa.
On Thursday, Sweden became the first country outside Africa to confirm a case of clade 1b. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the epidemic a global health emergency.
Unlike previous pandemics like covid-19, there is no evidence that mpox is easily spread through the air
The European CDC has recommended that public health authorities plan and prepare for rapid detection of any clade 1 cases that may arrive in Europe.
The impact of this virus strain in Europe is predicted to be low if appropriate surveillance and control measures are implemented, using the experience gained when another mpox strain, clade 2, spread globally in 2022, writes Reuters.
During that emergency, the virus spread most among men who had sex with men, and behavioral changes and vaccines helped bring it under control in Europe.
Chickenpox is a viral infection that causes flu-like symptoms and purulent lesions, and although usually mild, can be fatal in rare cases. It is transmitted through close contact, including sexual contact, and clade 1b appears to spread more easily between people than other forms of the virus, although there are many open questions about its severity and transmissibility, Rendi-Wagner said.
Unlike previous pandemics, there is no evidence that it spreads easily through the air.
Anyone who has symptoms and has traveled or had contact with people who have traveled to affected areas in Africa should see a doctor immediately, she added.
"Test, test, test, in order to find suspected cases in Europe as soon as possible and avoid further spread," she said in recommendations to European public health authorities.
They hope to avoid failures with covid
The WHO hosted an emergency meeting yesterday to discuss ways to ensure global access to tests, drugs and vaccines for mumps, Reuters reported.
The meeting was attended by health experts overseeing the global response to Covid-19, including global health agencies such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Gavi, the global vaccine group.
They discussed how to ensure that failures during the covid pandemic in providing equal access to medical treatments, tests and vaccines are not repeated with the outbreak of mpox, said Ajoade Alakija, chair of the meeting and WHO special envoy.
"Last time we fell short with access to products, but we learned those lessons... and I will make sure that equity (equal access) is the first thing we think about (now)," Alakija said.
During covid, many low-income countries were neglected, as high-income countries bought medical tools to fight the virus, especially vaccines. The WHO-led alliance eventually ensured that nearly two billion vaccines, hundreds of millions of tests and hundreds of thousands of treatments were delivered worldwide.
Earlier yesterday, China said it plans to monitor people and goods entering the country for mpox over the next six months.
Many more diagnostic kits, treatments and vaccines need to be shipped to Africa to adequately respond to the outbreak of a new strain of the mumps virus, an official of the humanitarian network of the Red Cross and Red Crescent said yesterday.
Global vaccine group chief Gavi told Reuters it has up to $500 million available for vaccines for countries hit by the outbreak in Africa.
Shares of pharmaceutical companies that manufacture and develop vaccines against mpox rose yesterday.
Shares in Danish biotech company Bavarian Nordic rose 20 percent after it said it had submitted data to the EU medicines regulator for approval to extend the use of the measles and mumps vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to 17.
Shares of New Jersey-based Tonik Pharmaceuticals also jumped after the company said it would advance development of its smallpox vaccine candidate.
"We are motivated to urgently advance the development of our smallpox vaccine in light of the global public health emergency," said CEO Seth Lederman.
There was also an increase in the actions of the producers of pox vaccines, Emergent BioSolutions and GeoVak Labs.
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