The World Health Organisation (WHO) has appealed to pharmaceutical firms to step up vaccine production amid Sweden and Pakistan facing the first cases of the deadly mpox strain that has killed multiple people in Africa.
Health authorities warned yesterday that Europe must be on alert for more cases of the deadly mpox strain. The WHO cautioned that urgent vaccine development was urgently necessary. Earlier on Wednesday, it declared the mox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern – its highest level of alert – with Clade 1b cases rising in the Democratic Republic of Congo and spreading beyond its borders.
The organisation asked countries with stockpiles of vaccines to donate them to countries where the virus is spreading. “We do need the manufacturers to really scale up so that we’ve got access to many, many more vaccines,” according to WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris. She added that mpox was “particularly dangerous for those with a weak immune system, so people who maybe have HIV or are malnourished,” but also poses a strong threat to children.
In response to the request, the United States has already reacted, saying it will donate 50,000 doses of mpox vaccine to the DRC. Two Eurpoean countries have also responded to the request. France confirmed its intention to send vaccines to at-risk countries. Danish drug maker Bavarian Nordic will be ready to make up to 10 million doses of its mpox vaccine by 2025, but that it needs contracts to start production.
The Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said the overall risk in Europe was not high, but warned of the need for common safety measures. In a statement, ECDC director Pamela Rendi-Wagner said:
Effective surveillance, laboratory testing, epidemiological investigation and contact tracing capacities will be vital to detecting cases. Due to the close links between Europe and Africa, we must be prepared for more imported clade I cases.
Mpox provokes by a virus transmitted to humans by animals, but can also spread from person to person through close physical contact. The virus also causes fever, muscle aches, and large boils that look like kija. The virus has two subtypes: the more virulent and deadly Clade 1, endemic in the Congo Basin in Central Africa; and Clade 2, endemic in West Africa.
The worldwide outbreak that began in 2022 involving the Clade 2b subclade has resulted in about 140 deaths out of an estimated 90,000 cases, mostly affecting gay and bisexual men. France reported 107 cases of the milder mpox variant between 1 January and 30 June this year. On Thursday this week, the Swedish Public Health Agency announced that it had registered a case of Clade 1b.
The virus has spread through the DRC, killing 548 people this year, the government reported on Thursday. There have been 39 cases of moxa in Nigeria this year, but no deaths, health authorities said. Previously unaffected countries such as Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda have reported outbreaks, according to the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
Developing a vaccine remains a priority intention, but the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the world’s largest humanitarian network, said it faces significant challenges in tackling mpox.
Bronwyn Nichol, IFRC’s senior public health emergency officer, said most vaccine stocks were in rich countries and those sent to Africa so far had been extremely low, adding that a severe shortage of testing, treatment and vaccines across the continent was hampering the ability to contain the outbreak.
