The World Health Organization on Friday urged manufacturers to ramp up production of the MPOX vaccine to curb the spread of more dangerous strains of the virus.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday declared the MPOX outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern – the highest alert level – after a surge in lineage 1b cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo and their spread across borders.
“We need manufacturers to scale up production so we can get more vaccines,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters.
WHO is calling on countries with MPOX vaccine stockpiles to donate doses to countries where the outbreak is ongoing.
In recent years, two types of mpox vaccines have been used: MVA-BN, produced by Danish pharmaceutical company Bayern Nordic, and LC16, produced by Japan.
Harris said there are 500,000 doses of the MVA-BN vaccine in stock, but an additional 2.4 million doses can be rapidly produced if purchasers agree.
An additional 10 million doses of vaccine could be produced in 2025, subject to committed procurement requests.
“LC16 is not commercially available but is a vaccine manufactured on behalf of the Japanese government. There is a significant stockpile of this vaccine,” Harris added, saying the WHO was working with the Japanese government to facilitate donations.
“It's no big deal.”
Doctors Without Borders said countries with vaccine stockpiles but no outbreaks “should donate as many vaccines as possible” to African countries with outbreaks.
The company said MVA-BN was priced out of reach for most countries where MPOX was a threat and called on Bavarian Nordic to lower the price.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the world's largest humanitarian network, said the MPOX response faces huge challenges.
Bronwyn Nicol, senior public health emergencies officer at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC), said most vaccine stocks are in wealthy countries and only a “small amount” has been sent to Africa so far.
“There are serious shortages of tests, treatments and vaccines across the continent. These shortages severely hinder our ability to contain the spread of the virus,” she said.
“A complex picture”
The WHO, led by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is expected to issue interim advice to countries on how to respond to the MPOX surge.
The virus has two subtypes: the more virulent and deadly lineage 1, which is prevalent in the Congo Basin in Central Africa, and lineage 2, which is prevalent in West Africa.
The outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo is being driven by two distinct lineage-1 outbreaks, Tedros said at a meeting Thursday of the U.N. health agency's Standing Committee on Health Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response.
The first is an outbreak in northwestern Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as lineage 1 but now called lineage 1a. This outbreak is mainly affecting children and is spreading through multiple routes of infection, he said.
The second lineage, known as lineage 1b, which is an offshoot of lineage 1 and has emerged in the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, was first detected last September and is spreading rapidly, mainly through sexual contact among adults.
The spread of lineage 1b and its detection in neighbouring countries was the main reason why the WHO issued a maximum alert.
“The situation is complex and will require a complex, comprehensive and coordinated international response to respond to and control each outbreak,” Tedros said.
