We are committed to continuing conversations with the union.
The most severe and lethal Clade 1 mpox, historically endemic to central Africa..., has become predominant and is now found throughout the region,
It is better if the patient is quarantined,
Although the possibility of a few imported cases being detected in the coming weeks is not entirely ruled out, it was assessed that the risk of a large outbreak with sustained transmission is presently low for India,
A co-ordinated international response is essential to stop this outbreak and save lives,
We do need the manufacturers to really scale up so that we've got access to many, many more vaccines,
If we can vaccinate individuals at risk they will be protected from infection and this will help control the epidemic – so both benefit the person vaccinated and the broader population,
Some people become much more unwell and they may develop a more severe illness with hundreds of lesions all over the body,
It’s a disease. Whether you get the severe form – then it leads to death – or you just recover [in] two to four weeks. Everything goes back to normal,
There is no vaccine in Africa. Whatever is left of that vaccine is stockpiled in the West as part of their own emergency preparedness. But we have an ongoing emergency here,
A lot of the transmission is in densely populated areas with many children, and children are probably more prone to running around and coming into direct skin-to-skin contact with others – so that then causes transmission. Whereas adults have less direct contact with others,
For example, people with untreated HIV [a sexually transmitted illness] or a weak immune system are at still higher risk of severe disease. Children also seem to be at higher risk of severe disease,
Beyond the fact that all infections obviously transiently cause responses in the immune system, we don’t believe there are long-term impacts on the immune system from mpox,
There are likely to be small numbers of cases exported further afield, as [in] the Swedish case, but the major risk and the focus for action needs to be on central Africa,
There is, however, vaccination, which is effective at reducing risk. The priority needs to be getting an adequate supply of vaccine to those populations most at risk in DRC and surrounding countries,
There is talk that there are more people that have lesions around the genitals this time around than previous clade I outbreaks,
The underlying health conditions of the population in the DRC are probably contributing to the current case fatality rate,
We should have learned a lesson from 2022 that an infection anywhere is potentially an infection everywhere,
As a result of the rapid spread of this outbreak in Africa, ECDC has increased the level of risk for the general population in the EU/EEA and travelers to affected areas,
Ensuring effective surveillance, laboratory testing, epidemiological investigation and contact tracing capacities will be vital to detecting cases of MPXV clade I on the continent and activating any response,