So far, Mpox vaccines have been used during the 2022 global outbreak against the mildest strain of the virus, which has not caused any deaths.
Scientists have warned that vaccines, seen as the main hope for stopping a global Mpox outbreak from a new, deadlier strain, may not work. According to Dr Marion Koopmans, director of the Centre for Pandemics and Disasters at Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands, experts simply don’t know how the new clade 1B Mpox virus would react to current vaccines.
“The honest answer is we don’t know yet,” he told the Daily Mail UK in an interview.
So far, Mpox vaccines have been used during the 2022 global outbreak against the mildest strain of the virus, known as clade 2, which has not caused any deaths. However, experts believe the vaccines need to be tested against the more potent version, which has killed nearly 1,000 people in Africa and has now spread to Europe and Asia.
Experts are unsure of the vaccine’s efficacy
The current Mpox vaccine is the one given to prevent smallpox, a close relative of Mpox. Because of the similarity between the two viruses, experts say it would be effective at creating cross-protection. However, because it was given during a live outbreak, it was difficult to determine exactly what benefit it provided, says Dr. Koopermans.
“There is some evidence of clinical efficacy during vaccinations given during an evolving outbreak, when there are also other things people do to reduce transmission,” said Professor Koopmans. “It is not so easy to say whether this vaccine provides complete protection. The hope is that for clade 1b there is also sufficient cross-protection, but that is an area that urgently needs study,” she added.
Dr Koopmans added that there were uncertainties, such as how long the vaccines offered protection and how effective they were in children, who appear to be particularly at risk in the new outbreak. “We have not repeated these studies in children and that is a big challenge, especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where most of the significantly affected people are children,” she said.
“We need to take a risk/benefit approach, especially in the context of an outbreak, when deciding whether to vaccinate children.”
The new Mpox strain is more lethal than ever
The new strain of Mpox, formerly called monkeypox, is more deadly than the milder version, which spread to more than a dozen countries including the UK in 2022, experts say. The clade 1B Mpox strain kills about one in 20 adults it infects, but the fatality rate is one in 10 in children. The virus is spread by skin-to-skin contact, which can include sexual intercourse, or through direct care.
Clade 1B has swept through central Africa, especially the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing hundreds of people since the second outbreak began in the summer of this year. New cases of the strain have also been detected in Sweden, Pakistan and Thailand in recent weeks.
Many experts have also said that clade 1B mortality rates are unlikely to be replicated in developed countries due to better access to higher quality healthcare.
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