EU public health body raises mpox risk alert level

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) on Friday (Aug 16) raised its risk level for mpox, a day after global health officials confirmed the first infection with a new strain of the virus outside Africa, in Sweden.

The EU public health body's head said there will be more imported cases of the new mpox strain in Europe in the coming weeks, though the risk of sustained transmission remains low.

The World Health Organisation on Wednesday declared mpox a global public health emergency, its highest form of alert, following an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo that had spread to neighbouring countries.

The global health body is due to host an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss ways to ensure fair global access to tests, treatments and vaccines for the virus, a leading official said.

Mpox, a viral infection that causes pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms, is usually mild but can kill. Two strains are now spreading in Congo - the endemic form of the virus, clade I, and a new offshoot called clade Ib.

The ECDC on Friday raised its risk level assessment for mpox to "moderate" from "low" for sporadic cases appearing in the EU, and asked countries to maintain high levels of awareness among travellers visiting from affected areas. The agency said the overall risk to the population had gone up from "very low" to "low".

"Due to the close links between Europe and Africa, we must be prepared for more imported clade I cases," its director Pamela Rendi Wagner said.

Pakistan also confirmed on Friday a case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, though it was not clear whether it was of the new variant or of the clade that has been spreading globally since 2022.

Mpox transmits through close physical contact, including sexual contact, but unlike previous global pandemics such as Covid-19 there is no evidence it spreads easily through the air.

WHO official Margaret Harris said on a media call on Friday that she expects more cases outside Africa to emerge soon, also as a result of heightened monitoring.

However, the WHO has advised against any travel restrictions to stop the spread of the virus. China said earlier on Friday it plans to monitor people and goods entering the country for mpox for the next six months.

Diagnostics

Far more diagnostic kits, treatments and vaccines need to be shipped to Africa to respond adequately to the outbreak of the new strain of the mpox virus there, an official of the Red Cross and Red Crescent humanitarian network said on Friday.

The head of global vaccine group Gavi told Reuters it has up to US$500 million (S$657 million) to spend on getting shots to countries affected by the escalating outbreak in Africa.

Shares in companies making and developing products against mpox surged on Friday. Shares of vaccine makers Bavarian Nordic and Emergent BioSolutions jumped 20 per cent each, while those of Siga Technologies which makes an antiviral mpox drug, rose seven per cent.

Denmark's Bavarian Nordic said it had submitted data to the EU's drug regulator for approval to extend the use of its mpox and smallpox vaccine to adolescents aged 12 to 17 years.

Shares in New Jersey-based Tonix Pharmaceuticals also leapt after the company said it will advance development of its mpox vaccine candidate.

"We are motivated to advance development for our mpox vaccine with urgency given the global public health emergency," its CEO Seth Lederman said.

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