Mpox: WHO calls for vaccine candidates as dangerous clade targeting children spreads widely

Sub: Science and Tech

Sec: Health

Context:

Ahead of an emergency meeting to discuss the spread of mpox (earlier called monkeypox) within and outside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the WHO has called for vaccine candidates for fast approval and distribution.
The meeting will take a call on whether the latest mpox outbreak is a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) – WHO’s most serious alarm.

Details

WHO invited pharmaceutical companies to submit dossiers for emergency use listing (EUL).
The strategy is used in times of public health emergencies like pandemics to make the authorisation of new and critical medicines and vaccines simpler. It also facilitates distribution of such resources through global initiatives.

Outbreak:

Nearly 27,000 cases have been reported in the DRC and 1,100 people, many of them children have succumbed to the infection since the infection began in 2022-23.
Since last September, the contagion spread to nine neighbouring countries, including Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, where the disease was reported for the first time.
The mpox caseload has increased 160 per cent in 2024, according to the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

What is Mpox?

Mpox is a viral zoonotic disease caused by the monkeypox virus which was first recorded in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
There are two known types (clades) of mpox virus: clade I and clade II
Mpox can be transmitted to humans through physical contact with someone who is infectious, with contaminated materials, or with infected animals.
There are no specific treatments for Mpox virus infection.
In 2022, the disease was declared a global emergency after it spread to some 70 countries. The emergency was withdrawn in 2023.

New clade of the virus

The new clade of the virus – Ib – that emerged in the DRC late last year has been observed to be much deadlier than the other variants.
Moreover, the disease has now been affecting children disproportionately.
While the initial spread was seemingly through sexual contact, the epidemiology of the disease rapidly shifted to affect children under 15 years who constitute over 60 per cent of all cases and 80 per cent of all deaths, with the largest case fatality rate in children aged less than one year.

Emergency use listing (EUL)

The WHO Emergency Use Listing Procedure (EUL) is a risk-based procedure for assessing and listing unlicensed vaccines, therapeutics and in vitro diagnostics with the ultimate aim of expediting the availability of these products to people affected by a public health emergency.
Granting of an EUL will accelerate vaccine access particularly for those lower-income countries which have not yet issued their own national regulatory approval.
The EUL also enables partners including Gavi and UNICEF to procure vaccines for distribution.