The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has identified a new recombinant strain of mpox (formerly monkeypox) that contains elements of clade Ib and clade IIb of the virus, in a traveler who recently returned from Asia. In a paper describing the new strain, the researchers at UKHSA say it is not possible to determine from a single genome how long the recombinant virus has been in circulation, or whether it will have a fitness benefit over currently circulating lineages.
The UK Health Security Agency has identified a new recombinant strain of mpox (formerly monkeypox) that contains elements of clade Ib and clade IIb of the virus, in a traveler who recently returned from Asia.
Jynneos, a current vaccine against orthopoxviruses such as smallpox and mpox virus, elicits only modest antibody responses, highlighting the need to search for more immunogenic vaccines or treatments. The global outbreak of mpox virus infections in 2022 lent urgency to this challenge.
Danish vaccines manufacturer Bavarian Nordic A/S is to be taken private in a DKK233 per-share deal valuing the company at DKK19 billion (US$2.97 billion). The deal needs the support of 90% of Bavarian Nordic shareholders to go through, and as things stand may not reach that target because it does not have the support of the largest shareholder, the Danish pension fund ATP, which owns 10.17%.
“The nation’s scientific enterprise is being decimated.” That statement in an open letter “to the American people” signed by 1,800 members of the U.S. National Academies, is made concrete in a list of 709 NIH grants – and counting – that have been axed since President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20.
The U.S. foreign aid cuts and freezes that are taking place under President Donald Trump are putting at risk the global public health gains that have been made against diseases such as malaria, HIV and tuberculosis over the past two decades, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a March 17 media briefing, as he called on other countries to step up and fill the gap.
First, the good news about pandemics – and in 2024, there was big “good news.” Science Magazine named lenacapavir (Gilead Sciences Inc.) as the Breakthrough of the Year. In two separate trials, lenacapavir prevented HIV transmission with 100% efficacy in cisgender African women and 99.9% efficacy in men and gender-diverse persons when administered twice a year.
Modified vaccinia Ankara immunization in nonhuman primate models of lethal mpox virus infection, although effective to some extent, has been linked to breakthrough lesions and throat swab viremia.
