Faced with the active circulation of the clade 1 Mpox virus in Central Africa and the recent expansion of a subtype considered more lethal and transmissible (1b) in East Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on Wednesday on August 14, paving the way for strengthened coordination of regional health systems and increased mobilization of all stakeholders to fight this epidemic at the international level. The following day, Thursday 15 August, Sweden declared the first positive case of Mpox clade 1b on European soil. Subsequently, on Friday August 16, the French government put the French health system in a state of maximum alertness and the French authorities began to re-evaluate the health recommendations established in 2022 during the previous Mpox epidemic to prepare for the probable occurrence of cases in the national territory.
In these circumstances, the Pasteur Institute is supporting the national mobilization by taking three measures with immediate effect:
- Since this weekend, following the activation of the Directorate General of Health (DGS), the Biological Emergency Intervention Unit (CIBU) of the Pasteur Institute has, at the request of the health authorities, analyzed suspicious samples taken in the Parisian hospital institutions or the Pasteur Institute Medical Center (CMIP) to establish a diagnosis of Mpox, in complementarity with reference health institutions and in collaboration with the National Reference Center – Expert Laboratory (CNR-LE) for Orthopoxviruses.
- The Pasteur Institute Medical Center, which specializes in travel medicine (tropical infectious diseases, including dermatological), and which had treated patients with Mpox during the previous epidemic in 2022, has triggered its internal protocol that allows it to test patients with symptoms suggestive of Mpox, which is available for consultation under optimal security conditions: collection of samples in a negative pressure isolation room and using a proven procedure for handling, packaging and transporting samples to a contained laboratory with biological safety level 3. In case of positive test, patient treatment will be provided ii in collaboration with the reference health institutions, with which the Institut Pasteur has a close collaboration.
- The Pasteur Institute Medical Center is available to health authorities to vaccinate within its walls all people from the population groups targeted by the health recommendations currently being reevaluated, as it did in 2022 with more than 1,500 people at increased risk of contamination .
” With the active spread of this new strain of Mpox in several African countries and its recent appearance in Europe, it is likely that people will be affected in France. This is a serious health situation that requires all our vigilance. This is why the Pasteur Institute is mobilizing and benefiting from years of research into this virus and the lessons learned from the 2022 epidemic. Today, we are ready to test and vaccinate patients at the request of the authorities in accordance with the health protocol and in cooperation with the reference health institutions “, declared Yasmine Belkaid, Director General of the Institut Pasteur.
In addition, the Pasteur Institute, in collaboration with ANRS-MIE, has decided to intensify the research it has already carried out for several years on Mpox, especially in Central Africa, to help fight and contain epidemics associated with this virus in a lasting way.
- This research aims to identify the animal reservoirs of the virus, its mechanisms of transmission from animals to humans and between humans, as well as the resulting epidemic dynamics. The expertise accumulated in this framework is used by local health authorities to define the public health measures to be implemented to counter the spread of the virus.
- This research helps strengthen our diagnostic capabilities using field-deployable tests and our knowledge of virus subtypes using sequencing. Mpox diagnosis and isolation of the various circulating strains, which today is practiced in France and internationally benefits from this work.
- Research is ongoing at the Pasteur Institute to improve treatments and vaccines against Mpox and its various strains in the long term. Thus, the Pasteur Institute is conducting an in-depth study to analyze the function of Tecovirimat, the most important antiviral agent available, to determine its effectiveness on the different strains in circulation and to identify complementary molecules that would work against the strains that Tecovirimat is ineffective on. . Institut Pasteur, in collaboration with Inserm, is also trying to characterize new monoclonal antibodies, as well as ” nanobodies », small antibodies, all with neutralizing activity against Mpox and which can be used in antiviral therapies. Finally, the Pasteur Institute is investigating opportunities to evaluate the effectiveness and improve the already available vaccines (so-called 3th generation) or under development (messenger RNA vaccines) using its own antigens.
For Yasmine Belkaid, Director General of the Institut Pasteur, “ This new episode reminds us that the epidemic risk is unfortunately part of our lives and that it must be the subject of global, sustained and lasting mobilization if we want to limit it. Especially since the growing upheavals in the ecosystems and the intensification of trade on an international level make this risk greater every day. To act, we must support scientific research into infectious diseases (virology, immunology, vaccinology, but also epidemiology, ecology, anthropology) and intervene as close as possible to epidemic outbreaks, often in the south, by allowing populations and local and regional authorities to prevent and manage this risk on their own and in a superb manner “.