GENEVA, CMC—The World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday that pox is “not the ‘new COVID’ and that European governments must show strong political commitment to eliminating it.
The Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has already called on member states to be vigilant against the pox virus outbreak after the WHO declared the virus a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC) last week.
In a statement, CARPHA, which said it had established a testing capacity for the virus with a turnaround time of 72 hours, said the current pox outbreak is caused by clade I, which is more transmissible and causes more severe illness.
“Presently, no cases of clade 1b pox have been reported in the Caribbean and its neighboring countries, including the US, UK, Canada, and Latin America. There are limited travelers and no direct commercial flights from the DRC or its neighboring countries to the Caribbean.”
However, as he briefed reporters here, WHO Regional Director for Europe, Dr. Hans Kluge, insisted that the risk of pox to the general population was “low.”
He rejected comparisons between the fast-spreading viral disease and the COVID-19 pandemic, saying, “Regardless of whether it’s pox clade 1, behind the ongoing outbreak in east-central Africa, or pox clade 2, behind the 2022 outbreak that initially impacted Europe and has continued to circulate in Europe since.”
“We know how to control pox – and in the European region – the steps needed to eliminate its transmission,” Dr. Kluge said.
Current scientific knowledge about the virus indicates that it primarily transmits through skin-to-skin contact with pox lesions, including during sex. The UN health agency official’s reply to whether Europe would experience COVID-like lockdowns was an unequivocal “no.”
Speaking via video link from Copenhagen, Dr. Kluge recalled that the 2022 European pox outbreak was brought under control “thanks to the direct engagement with the most affected communities of men who have sex with men.”
He cited “behavior change, non-discriminatory public health action, and pox vaccination” as success factors in Europe in 2022.
However, he said the region “failed to go the last mile” to quash the disease and is currently seeing some 100 new pox clade 2 cases every month.
Last week, Sweden became the first country outside Africa to record a case of the pox clade, one variant at the center of the latest outbreak, which is spreading from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to neighboring countries.
The Swedish case concerned a person who had traveled to an affected area of Africa. Dr. Kluge said the current state of alert due to clade 1, considered more severe, allows European health authorities to strengthen focus on clade two and eliminate it “once and for all.”
The UN health agency representative called for European solidarity with Africa, notably regarding equitable vaccine access.
WHO recommends the use of MVA-BN or LC16 vaccines or the ACAM2000 vaccine when the others are not available. These were initially developed against the now-eradicated disease of smallpox.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said that Bavarian Nordic, the producer of MVA-BN,” can manufacture 10 million doses by the end of 2025 and can already supply up to two million doses this year.”
He underscored that there is a “considerable” stockpile of LC16, a vaccine produced by the Japanese government.
He said, “Japan has been very generous in the past with donations” and is currently in negotiations with the DRC Government.
WHO recommends the use of MVA-BN or LC16 vaccines or the ACAM2000 vaccine when the others are not available. These were initially developed against the now-eradicated disease of smallpox.
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jašarević said that Bavarian Nordic, the producer of MVA-BN, “can manufacture 10 million doses by the end of 2025 and can already supply up to two million doses this year.” As for LC16, a vaccine produced on behalf of the Government of Japan, he underscored that there is a “considerable” stockpile of this vaccine.
“He said Japan has been very generous in the past with donations” and is currently in negotiations with the DRC Government,
The DRC has reported more than 15,600 pox cases so far this year and some 540 deaths.
Last week, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus triggered an “Emergency Use Listing” process for pox vaccines, designed to accelerate access for lower-income countries that have not yet issued their regulatory approval.
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