Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp receives extra funding in fight against mpox

The Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp has received 2 million euros in extra funding from the Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid of the FPS Foreign Affairs. The money is to be used for research and to combat the further spread of the mpox virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Earlier on Friday, the World Health Organization (WHO) also gave the go-ahead for a first test to detect mpox, previously known as monkeypox. That test should help to better combat the current epidemic. The disease has already claimed the lives of nearly 900 people since the beginning of this year.

“A new variant of the mpox virus recently surfaced in Africa and the variant was detected for the first time outside Africa, in Sweden, on 15 August,” the ITM wrote in a press release on Friday. “This raises fears of a global spread.’”

The additional funds will allow the ITM and the Congolese National Institute of Biomedical Research to launch a vaccination campaign in the worst affected areas. The DRC's eastern South Kivu province is currently the epicentre of the outbreak. Above all, the campaign should show whether large-scale vaccination campaigns are feasible in the future.

“Our goal is to vaccinate at least 10,000 people, which amounts to 20,000 vaccine doses,” explained Laurens Liesenborghs, expert at the ITM. “The region has a high population density, a sizeable sex industry and a lot of cross-border traffic. This makes the situation worrying. Without quick action, the risk of international spread is high.”

There are two main strains of the virus known to exist. The milder one affected more than 100 countries, including in Europe, in 2022 and spread through sexual contact. The second, more deadly strain has been discovered recently in the DRC and is considered the most dangerous one. 

 

#FlandersNewsService | A patient infected with mpox shows lesions on his body at a treatment centre in South Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo © BELGA PHOTO Glody MURHABAZI / AFP


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