WHO says Europe can defeat mpox and must support vaccine availability
The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that mpox is “not the ‘new COVID’” and European governments need to show strong political commitment to eliminate it.
The Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has already called on member states to be vigilant against the mpox virus outbreak after the WHO last week declared the virus a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).
In a statement, CARPHA, which said it had established a testing capacity for the virus with a turnaround time of 72 hours, said the current outbreak of mpox is caused by clade I, which is more transmissible and causes more severe illness.
“Presently, no cases of clade 1b mpox have been reported in the Caribbean and its neighbouring countries, including the US, UK, Canada and Latin America. There is also a limited number of travellers and no direct commercial flights from the DRC or its neighbouring countries to the Caribbean.”
But as he briefed reporters here, WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, insisted that the risk from mpox to the general population was “low”.
He rejected comparisons between the fast-spreading viral disease and the COVID-19 pandemic, saying “Regardless of whether it’s mpox clade 1, behind the ongoing outbreak in east-central Africa, or mpox clade 2, behind the 2022 outbreak that initially impacted Europe and has continued to circulate in Europe since”.
“We know how to control mpox – and in the European region – the steps needed to eliminate its transmission altogether,” Dr Kluge said.
Current scientific knowledge about the virus indicates that it primarily transmits through skin-to-skin contact with mpox lesions, including during sex. The UN health agency official’s reply to questions about whether Europe would experience COVID-like lockdowns was an unequivocal “no”.
Speaking via video link from Copenhagen, Dr Kluge recalled that the 2022 European mpox outbreak was brought under control “thanks to the direct engagement with the most affected communities of men who have sex with men”.
He cited “behaviour change, non-discriminatory public health action and mpox vaccination” as factors of success in Europe in 2022.
However, he said the region “failed to go the last mile” to quash the disease and is currently seeing some 100 new mpox clade 2 cases every month.
Last week, Sweden became the first country outside Africa to record a case of the mpox clade 1 variant at the centre of the latest outbreak, which has been spreading from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to neighbouring countries.
The Swedish case concerned a person who had travelled to an affected area of Africa and Dr. Kluge said the current state of alert due to clade 1, which is considered to be more severe, gives European health authorities the opportunity to also strengthen focus on clade 2 and eliminate it “once and for all”.
The UN health agency representative called specifically for European solidarity with Africa, notably regarding equitable access to vaccines.
WHO recommends the use of MVA-BN or LC16 vaccines, or the ACAM2000 vaccine when the others are not available.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said that the producer of MVA-BN, Bavarian Nordic, “has capacity to manufacture 10 million doses by the end of 2025 and can already supply up to two million doses this year”.
As for LC16, which is a vaccine produced on behalf of the Government of Japan, he underscored that there is a “considerable” stockpile of this vaccine.
“Japan has been very generous in the past with donations” and is currently in negotiations with the DRC Government, he said.
WHO recommends the use of MVA-BN or LC16 vaccines, or the ACAM2000 vaccine when the others are not available.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said that the producer of MVA-BN, Bavarian Nordic, “has capacity to manufacture 10 million doses by end of 2025 and can already supply up to two million doses this year”. As for LC16, which is a vaccine produced on behalf of the Government of Japan, he underscored that there is a “considerable” stockpile of this vaccine.
“Japan has been very generous in the past with donations” and is currently in negotiations with the DRC Government, he said.
The DRC has reported more than 15,600 mpox cases so far this year and some 540 deaths.
Last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus triggered an “Emergency Use Listing” process for mpox vaccines, designed to accelerate access for lower-income countries which have not yet issued their own regulatory approval.
GENEVA, Aug 20, CMC
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