Key Mpox Drug Ineffective Against New Lethal Strain

Politico Europe reports:

A drug used in the last global mpox outbreak in 2022-23 is not effective against the more severe virus spreading rapidly in Africa, researchers have found. The antiviral, tecovirimat, did not reduce the duration of lesions among children and adults with clade I mpox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), according to the initial results of a placebo-controlled trial run by researchers in the DRC and the U.S.

Clade I is a more dangerous type of mpox — formerly known as monkeypox — than clade II which caused a global outbreak in 2022, and is associated with more severe illness and higher fatality rates. Clade I is disproportionately affecting children, a trend not seen in the 2022 outbreak, and triggered the World Health Organization to declare a global emergency on Wednesday.

Reuters reports:

Pakistan’s health ministry has confirmed at least one case of the mpox virus in a patient who had returned from a Gulf country, it said on Friday, though they did not yet know the strain of the virus.

Global health officials on Thursday confirmed an infection with a new strain of the mpox virus in Sweden and linked it to a growing outbreak in Africa, the first sign of its spread outside the continent.

There have been 27,000 cases and more than 1,100 deaths, mainly among children, in Congo since the current outbreak began in January 2023.

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U.S. NIH finds that Tecovirimat, the Mpox drug many countries were stockpiling, is not effective against the new clade I strain! Read more below:https://t.co/xmpFYv7ebZ pic.twitter.com/mUsVCJRICp

— Patientmakt (@PatientCV) August 16, 2024