(Bloomberg) – US health officials have tried to reassure the public that the risk of monkeypox is low and the country is ready to deal with its spread, although they acknowledge that there are more cases.
Although smallpox does not appear to be a serious threat to the general public, health officials say there is a stockpile of vaccines and antiviral drugs that are ready to use if needed. Treatment guides are also being developed for those who would benefit most.
In recent days, new and suspected cases of the disease have emerged in Europe and North America. The rare and potentially deadly cousin of the smallpox virus has traditionally been confined to regions in Africa, but health officials are concerned about its widespread spread.
See also: Biden says monkeypox shouldn’t be a concern for Covid-19
With one confirmed case in Massachusetts and four suspected cases in New York, Florida and Utah, U.S. health officials are investigating the origins of the virus. Within 48 hours, the case of the Massachusetts patient was found to be very similar to that reported by Portugal.
The cases in the United States are the West African strain of monkeypox, which tends to be milder than another species more common in Central Africa. It is estimated that the currently circulating strain kills about 1% of those infected. So far no one has died in this outbreak.
Although anyone can get or spread the monkey virus through intimate or sexual contact, many of those affected by the current global epidemic identify as gay and bisexual, public health officials said in an interview with reporters Monday. Sharing bedding, clothes or a toothbrush with an infected person would create a greater risk.
Catherine Wallace, an epidemiologist at the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, said the United States was in a better position to fight the smallpox outbreak than Covid-19 at the start of the pandemic. This is partly because monkeypox is significantly less transmitted than SARS-CoV-2.
The United States has also been stepping up its readiness for smallpox and monkeypox for decades at both the local and federal levels due to long-standing fears that smallpox could be used as a biological weapon. As a result, public health departments across the country continue to regularly update training and response protocols to deal with a potential smallpox or monkey epidemic, Wallace said. So when cases were identified in the United States last week, it was easy for health services to deploy those years of practice.
“Covid was a brand new virus, we didn’t know about it, and it was more contagious,” Wallace said. “It’s not like that here.”
National stock
At the federal level, the National Strategic Reserve has FDA-approved vaccinations and therapeutic agents against smallpox, most of which have also been shown to be effective against monkeypox, officials said.
Speaking to reporters on Monday, health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the United States had amassed doses of the Bavarian Scandinavian Jynneos vaccine and was looking for more. The United States has contracts for millions of doses of the vaccine.
Officials added that there were more than 100 million doses of Emergent BioSolutions Inc.’s ACAM2000 vaccine, which the company acquired from Sanofi in 2017. Two years later, Emergent signed a $ 2 billion contract with the Ministry of Health and Human Services of ACAM2000 for the national stock for 10 years.
Closely related
This vaccine is not specifically approved for monkeypox, but because smallpox is so closely related, it can withstand both viruses. However, CDC officials have warned that there may be serious side effects in people with certain health conditions, as the vaccine contains live replicating virus.
Officials said there had already been a request for the release of doses of the Jynneos vaccine for people who are considered high-risk contacts in cases of monkeypox identified in the United States. The vaccine is considered safer than ACAM2000.
“There are relatively few governments that are prepared or taking medical measures to counter the seriousness,” Northern Bavaria’s chief executive Paul Chaplin said in an interview Monday, adding that the United States is one of the few ready. “Most governments are purely reactionary, but vaccine production cannot be turned on and off as a light switch.
Bavarian Nordic is now working to approve its vaccine in the European Union and other major markets.
“We get a lot of calls,” he said. “There are a lot of concerns here in Europe. But this is not a product with which we have a large inventory standing on the shelf. It is really made to order. We have some doses in stock. We are preparing the production while we talk. ”
He said he hoped supplies would be available to the countries this summer. Chaplin, who has been in charge of Bavarian Nordic’s smallpox program since its inception, said his company has “quite a bit” of the main ingredient in the Jynneos vaccine, but it will take up to six weeks to prepare it for end users.
Increase
Bloomberg announced earlier Monday that Bavarian Nordic could increase production to 30 million doses a year if needed. Chaplin said the company is expanding, seeking to hire another 200 employees before the end of the year to meet demand for stocks.
Wallace of the University of Illinois at Chicago said the entire population is unlikely to be vaccinated against monkeypox. Because it is spread primarily through close contact, the United States can only vaccinate those who have come in contact with an infected person. Requests have already been made for the release of Jynneos doses for high-risk contacts in the four cases of monkeypox identified so far in the United States.
In addition to smallpox vaccines, there is a sufficient amount of antiviral drug that has shown potential for monkeypox based on animal experiments. This is SIGA Technologies Inc.’s Tpoxx, in national stock.
During a conversation Monday, CDC officials said they were also in talks with Chimerix Inc. for the purchase of Tembexa, another antiviral agent, for national stocks.
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