Launch of an international scientific study on Monkeypox
An international study will be launched in ten European countries, including France, to better understand monkey smallpox and to assess the impact of managing patients affected by this disease, the ANRS (French research agency on AIDS and viral hepatitis) announced on Monday.
“The implementation of this international observational study will allow us to acquire new knowledge essential to the advancement of research on simian smallpox and available treatments,” said Professor Yazdan Yazdanpanah, Director of the ANRS-Emerging Infectious Diseases, quoted in a statement.
The study, entitled Mosaic, builds on ongoing work in the Central African Republic to better characterize the disease in countries where a recent spread has been reported.
Patients from the ten participating countries – the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Belgium, France, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, and Spain – will provide information to the study team about their symptoms and treatment responses. They will also be followed to observe the speed of their recovery or the development of possible complications.
“We urgently need to better understand this neglected disease”, said Professor Xavier Lescure, of the infectious diseases department of the Bichat Hospital – Public Assistance – Paris Hospitals and Paris Cité University, which coordinates the study in European countries.
“I am delighted that in just a few weeks a study has been launched in Europe,” Professor Piero Olliaro of the University of Oxford and researcher responsible for the study, also quoted in the release.
The study is supported in part by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office and Wellcome and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The first patients were already recruited at the University Hospitals of Geneva (HUG) in Switzerland. In France, the first patients will be included soon.
The head of the WHO reiterated his concern last Wednesday in the face of the outbreak of monkey smallpox and announced that he would convene the Emergency Committee, which should help him to judge the gravity of the crisis by the week of July 18.
