United States: The US health officials have reported a cluster of cases caused by a mpox variant, which is apparently resistant to Siga Technologies’ antiviral tecovirimat, which is branded under the name TPOXX.
This outcome appeared in five US states, as reported by federal and state researchers on Thursday.
More about the news
According to a weekly Morbidity and Mortality report by the enters for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of eighteen individials have been involved in cases infected with clade II mpox in the time period of October 6, 2023, to February 15, who had never taken the treatment before, Reuters reported.
About mpox cases
Clade II mpox has been endemic to West Africa but will be widely transmitted globally in 2022. WHO declared it a public health emergency of concern arising from mpox cases, which remain occasional in some countries.
The drug-resistant mpox cases are a second cluster unrelated to the first that began in California in late 2022-early 2023 and the first to span multiple states, according to the report.
What more are the health experts stating?
Health officials claimed that the latest cases would have been underreported because not all mpox cases go through genomic sequencing to identify the variant in circulation.
Moreover, as the study authors mentioned, in order to avoid the risk of drug resistance, it is necessary to perform routine surveillance to prevent the occurrence of TPOXX, of which mpox is among the few diseases having available treatments.
Doctors reporting cases to the CDC said they informed their patients about how to take TPOXX, followed the recommended dosing regimen strictly, and emphasized that they might still transmit the virus to others while taking the drug, Reuters reported.
The authors of the study also added that the findings point to the need for more mpox treatments.
Clade II is distinct from the current outbreak of a new strain in Africa known as Clade Ib, which led the WHO to declare a second health emergency in August.
Following a US government-funded trial assessing TPOXX in clade Ib infections published in August, the result was the same: The treatment did not reduce recovery time compared with placebo.
Mpox, formerly called monkeypox, is an infectious viral disease characterized by fever, tiredness, and weeping rashes.
It is normally only slightly dangerous but can be lethality fatal in some people, especially those whose immune system is compromised. Mpox is acquired through direct contact, particularly through touching of the skin and sexual contact.