With More International Support / Resources -- We Might Have Arrested The 2022 Mpox Clade 2 Outbreak More Rapidly: Study

This is more fuel for the fire -- to re-invigorate USAID.

We must do better -- per CIDRAP's cogent reporting, of last week:

. . .A new gene-tracking study in Nature shows that mpox spread among people in Nigeria for 8 years before it sparked a global outbreak in 2022.

Using genomic tracing, researchers from Nigeria, the United States, Cameroon, Ethiopia, and Belgium estimate that the ancestor of the clade 2 mpox virus (mpxv) that ignited an international outbreak beginning in May 2022 first emerged in southern Nigeria in August 2014 and spread to 11 Nigerian states before human infections were detected in 2017.

In light of the findings, the authors write, "We need improved surveillance in the wildlife population in the forest systems to better understand the transmission and maintenance of MPXV in animal hosts," as well as better human surveillance.

"We could have very easily prevented the 2022 multi-country outbreak if countries in Africa were given better access to therapeutics, vaccines, and surveillance technologies," says first author Edyth Parker, PhD, MPhil, a researcher with the Institute of Genomics and Global Health and with the International Biosecurity and Biosafety Initiative for Science. . . .

Onward, resolutely. When you know better, you do better.

नमस्ते