WHO recommends MVA-BN or LC16 vaccines. WHO: Europe can beat monkeypox, must support Africa with vaccines Health
European governments must demonstrate strong political commitment to ending the monkeypox outbreak while showing solidarity with Africa, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge said on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters in Geneva, Dr Kluge stressed that the danger from monkeypox to the general population of Europe was “low.” He rejected comparisons between the fast-spreading viral disease, which the agency declared an “international public health emergency” last week, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Transmission Patterns
Current scientific knowledge about the virus indicates that it is transmitted primarily through skin-to-skin contact with an infected person, including during sex. When asked whether restrictions similar to those in place during the COVID-19 pandemic would be introduced in Europe, the WHO representative answered unequivocally “no.”
Dr. Kluge recalled that the monkeypox outbreak in Europe in 2022 was brought under control “through direct engagement with the most affected communities of men who have sex with men.” He cited “changes in public behavior, non-discriminatory measures by health authorities, and vaccination” as factors for success in Europe in 2022. However, according to him, the region has not yet been able to completely defeat the disease, and currently around 100 new cases of infection with the virus are registered every month.
Virus mutates
Last week, Sweden became the first country outside Africa to report a case of the clade I variant (a monkeypox strain – ed.), which has caused the latest outbreak to spread from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to neighboring countries. The person who fell ill in Sweden was a person who had traveled to virus-affected areas of Africa.
Actively combating the spread of clade I, which is considered more serious than other variants, gives European health authorities the opportunity to increase their focus on clade 2 and eliminate it “once and for all”, Hans Kluge emphasized.
Smallpox vaccines work
A WHO representative called on Europe to show solidarity with Africa – in particular on the issue of equitable access to vaccines.
WHO recommends using MVA-BN or LC16 vaccines, as well as ACAM2000 if others are not available. They were originally developed to counter the now-eradicated smallpox.
WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said MVA-BN’s maker, Copenhagen-based Bavarian Nordic, “has the capacity to produce 10 million doses by the end of 2025 and can already deliver up to two million doses this year.”
As for the LC16 vaccine, which is being produced for the Japanese government, he said “significant” stockpiles of the drug have now been accumulated.
“Japan has been very generous with donations in the past” and is currently in talks with the DRC government, Jasarevic said. More than 15,600 smallpox cases and about 540 deaths have been reported in the DRC this year.
International Efforts
Tarik Jasarevic noted that a positive legacy of the COVID-19 response has been the strengthening of laboratory capacity around the world, allowing for better detection of various viruses.
“We can and must fight monkeypox together – in all regions and on all continents,” Dr. Kluge added to the words of his colleague. “We need to create systems for monitoring and eliminating this disease around the world, otherwise we will fall into another cycle of panic. How we respond now and in the coming years will be a decisive test for Europe and the world.”