GENEVA- The World Health Organization (WHO) The US on Friday called for increased production of vaccines against MPOX, also known as “monkeypox,” to curb the growing spread of a new, more dangerous strain of the virus.
The WHO on Wednesday declared MPOX a public health emergency of international concern, its highest alert level, due to the resurgence of cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and other African countries.
The strain of the virus that is currently re-emerging is clade 1, the most dangerous and contagious of those identified so far.
Vaccine manufacturing
“We need manufacturers to ramp up their production so that we have access to many, many more vaccines,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters.
The UN health agency has called on countries with vaccine stocks to donate them to countries with MPOX outbreaks.
WHO immunization experts recommend two vaccines against monkeypox, which have been used in recent years.
These are the MVA-BN, produced by the Danish pharmaceutical company Bavarian Nordic, and the Japanese LC16.
Harris said there were half a million doses of MVA-BN in stock, while another 2.4 million doses could be produced quickly, if there was a commitment from buyers.
By 2025, another 10 million doses could be produced, subject to purchase requests.
“LC16 is a vaccine that is not commercially available, but is produced on behalf of the Japanese government. There is a significant stockpile of this vaccine,” Harris added. The WHO is working with Tokyo to facilitate donations, she said.
Mpox was first detected in humans in 1970 in present-day DRC (formerly Zaire).
It is a viral disease that is transmitted from animals to humans, as well as through close physical contact with a person infected by the virus.
It causes fever, muscle aches and skin lesions.
