Since the beginning of the year, 20,000 cases of Mpox, better known as monkeypox, and 582 deaths have been reported in Africa.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) updated the figures just as the World Health Organization (WHO) launched a global strategic plan involving $135 million in investments.
As concerns grow over the ongoing epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo, research continues on a new Clade I virus strain that is thought to be more dangerous than the one that caused the 2022 epidemic and is capable of infecting children.
Monkeypox is an infectious disease caused by orthopoxvirus, a virus similar to the virus that causes smallpox (from which it differs in its lesser diffuseness and severity).
Since November 2023, ECDC recalled, there has been “an increase in the number of people infected with the virus,” and almost all cases – 19,667 – have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
More recently, “such infections have been reported in other African countries.” And what’s even more alarming is that in recent weeks, two imported cases have even been identified: in Sweden (August 15) and Thailand (August 22).
The numbers that prompted WHO to declare an international health emergency on August 14. Now, let’s get to work on the global strategic plan to prepare for and respond to Mpox.
The fundamental principles are prevention through vaccines, control of transmission through public awareness and disease response based on clear guidelines.
The plan, “subject to contributions from Member States and covering the six-month period from September 2024 to February 2025,” provides for a budget of US$135 million.
“Smallpox epidemics,” said Tedros Adhanom, WHO director-general, calling for the necessary funding, “can be controlled and stopped. This requires a comprehensive and coordinated plan of action between international agencies and national and local partners, civil society, researchers, manufacturers and Member States.”
. The ECDC confirmed that in Europe the assessed level of risk to the general population “remains unchanged” and is considered “low”.
In Italy, “for now the situation is under control” and “no case of Clade I infection has been registered” linked to the new outbreak, explained a circular published on August 19 by the Ministry of Health, which a few days ago strengthened the diagnostic surveillance network and announced an interdepartmental table on the subject.
Particular attention remains on the Clade I strain, which is unclear whether it can respond to available vaccines. A research team from the La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) and the University of San Diego, California, is called upon to study the specifics of this process.
The Clade I strain, explained Alessandro Sette, co-director of the LJI Vaccine Innovation Centre, “generally causes more severe cases and deaths compared to the Clade II strain, it also appears to be more transmissible through skin-to-skin contact and has spread widely among people under 15 years of age.”
Meanwhile, the 2022 smallpox epidemic, caused by the Clade II subgroup, occurs predominantly in men who have sex with men.
At the same time, he clarified, “the situation is developing rapidly.”
The study of the evolution of clade I is even in the hands of researchers from the Biomedical Campus of Rome, who estimate a mortality rate of about 10%, but also a very slow rate of evolution.
“It remains extremely important,” said Massimo Ciccozzi, a professor of epidemiology at the campus, “to continue scanning genomes to observe their evolution.”
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