Last week’s meeting marked a prelude to GVN’s international meeting in Durban, South Africa, September 16-18, 2024

TAMPA, Fla., Aug. 29, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To mitigate the mpox outbreak, the Global Virus Network (GVN) is leading a panel of experts to develop guidelines and streamline testing standards, including strengthening infrastructure to sequencing and early detection. On August 22, 2024, the GVN, headquartered at the University of South Florida, USA, convened a critical mpox discussion online with leaders from the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), major industry partners, renowned virologists, and public health experts at the forefront of the mpox outbreak response.

Lorenzo Subissi, PhD, WHO’s Mpox Task Force lead, advised the group that the current mpox epidemic was escalated to a grade 3 emergency, requiring a major to maximal WHO response. He reported that 38% of children infected are under age 10 and noted sustained human-to-human transmission of clade 1b in Africa.

Mpox is a viral infection that spreads through close contact, including sexual relations, and causes flu-like symptoms, including fever, chills, muscle aches, and pus-filled lesions. Mpox is usually mild but sometimes fatal, mostly in children. The new clade 1b variant is responsible for the rising infections, primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and identified in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Thailand, as well as reported in the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, and Sweden.

The discussion highlighted the urgent need to enhance diagnostic capabilities, vaccine development, and global collaboration to mitigate the impact of the mpox outbreak, particularly in regions most at risk.

To facilitate recommendations catalyzed by the discussion, the GVN assembled a subcommittee on point-of-care diagnostics chaired by Rachel Roper, PhD, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at East Carolina University, USA and Co-chair of GVN’s Mpox Action Committee, Marion Koopmans, DVM, PhD, Erasmus Medical Center, Netherlands, a GVN Center of Excellence, and Deborah Williamson, PhD, Professor of Public Health Microbiology, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom, a GVN Center of Excellence, and Director of the UK Health Security Agency. The subcommittee is meeting weekly to develop global testing and diagnostic standards and generate suggestions through a collaborative whitepaper addressing issues such as sample collection, assays, and clinical triage procedures for frontline workers.

“It’s not just how a sample is transported,” Dr. Roper said, “but what type of sample is collected. For mpox, each lesion can have unique viral populations, and we need to have a universal sample type defined and well documented to aid surveillance.”

During the meeting, Emmanuel Agogo, PhD, Director of Pandemic Threats at FIND, Switzerland, emphasized the need for local capacity building: “To effectively combat mpox, we must empower local health systems and researchers. This will not only help contain the current outbreaks but also build long-term resilience against future threats. In particular, the need for decentralized diagnostic options is critical for surveillance, access to therapeutics and effective vaccine roll out.”

Maggie L. Bartlett, PhD, Program Director at the GVN and faculty member at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, USA, a GVN Center of Excellence, emphasized the importance of inclusive and equitable strategies: “Our efforts must reach those in the most affected regions, and we must prioritize health equity in our response to ensure that no one is left behind.”

Laurens Liesenborghs, MD, PhD, Assistant professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Belgium, member of ITM’s multidisciplinary Outbreak Research Team, and member of the GVN Mpox Action Committee, echoed the call for an innovative approach: “We cannot be content with the status quo. Our goal is to develop tools and strategies that are not only effective but also scalable and sustainable. This is a global challenge that demands a global response.”

Michael Mina, MD, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of eMed, USA, said “Rapid tests and PCR tests are not mutually exclusive. In fact, we learned during COVID how useful a dual strategy can be and how these can be incredibly powerful additive tools in our public health toolbox. We need the big companies to step it up and develop rapid diagnostics and research funding incentives from governments to ensure we don’t face the same fallout with the crash of small companies after the surge.”

Yenew Kebede Tebeje, MD, Head of Division of Laboratory Systems at Africa CDC advised, “Mpox poses a significant threat to public health, particularly in regions where health systems are already stretched thin. To effectively combat this virus, we must strengthen our surveillance, diagnostic, and response capabilities across Africa. Our collective efforts must ensure that we are not only containing the current outbreaks but also building the resilience needed to face future health challenges.”

In addition to addressing the immediate response, the meeting also focused on long-term strategies for pandemic preparedness and response. The participants discussed the critical role of partnerships between global organizations like WHO, GVN, Africa CDC, CEPI and FIND in driving innovation and ensuring that resources are directed where they are most needed.

Sten Vermund, MD, PhD, GVN President and President Emeritus of Yale University, USA, said, "The initiatives originating from the meeting represent part of the GVN effort to assist in the global effort to combat mpox and other emerging viral threats. Collaboration is imperative and we are keen that the GVN help leverage and focus resources and expertise helping to mitigate the mpox outbreak and plan for future threats.”

GVN’s coalition of the world’s leading virology researchers, who work together to prevent illness and death from viral disease, will continue these discussions about the mpox outbreak amid high-level scientific sessions examining pandemic preparedness and current threats, including at GVN’s International Annual Scientific Meeting, “Navigating Virology’s Frontiers in Africa,” co-hosted by the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA), a GVN Center of Excellence, September 16-18, 2024.

Salim Abdool Karim, MB, ChB, director of CAPRISA and CAPRISA Professor of Global Health at Columbia University, USA, is chair of the Africa CDC Emergency Consultative Group and warned that mpox spread is eminent, but with a global response it can be controlled and stopped. Dr. Karim also said the outbreak is particularly concerning as it disproportionately affects young people. He continued, “I look forward to continuing these discussions at the GVN international meeting in Durban as we tackle this rising threat, among other pressing global issues, including COVID-19, scientific misinformation, and pandemic preparedness.”

During GVN’s international meeting, experts will exchange ideas on themes including: evading viral evasion; translational virology and complex co-infections; training the next generation; post-viral diseases; bats, rats, and other vectors; genetic sequences and epidemiological insights; cutting-edge diagnostics and therapeutics; regional responses to disease; perspectives from agencies; pandemic preparedness; and combating scientific misinformation.

About the Global Virus Network (GVN)
The GVN is essential and critical in the preparedness, defense, and first research response to emerging, existing, and unidentified viruses that pose a clear and present threat to public health. Working in close coordination with established national and international institutions, the GVN is a coalition comprised of eminent human and animal virologists from 80+ Centers of Excellence and Affiliates in 40+ countries, working collaboratively to train the next generation, advance knowledge about how to identify and diagnose pandemic viruses, mitigate and control how such viruses spread and make us sick, as well as develop drugs, vaccines, and treatments to combat them. No single institution in the world has expertise in all viral areas other than the GVN, which brings together the finest medical virologists to leverage their individual expertise and coalesce global teams of specialists on the scientific challenges, issues, and problems posed by pandemic viruses. The GVN is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. For more information, please visit www.gvn.org.

For more information, please contact: Linman Li at linmanli@gvn.org