The virus, which the WHO recommends calling “MPOX”, continues to regress in France and worldwide. The members of the health and anticipation committee of health risks publish a set of recommendations to prevent its return.
by Delphine Roucaute
After six months, the Monkeypox epidemic – which the World Health Organization now recommends calling “MPOX” – almost seems to have disappeared in France. Between the 1 er and November 15, Only seven new cases were detected on the territory . In total, some 4,100 people were diagnosed positive for this Variole family virus. The overwhelming majority (97 %) of cases are adult men – 108 (2.6 %) are women and twelve (0.29 %) are children. No death is to be deplored on French soil. The risk of resurgence has not however completely disappeared, since the virus continues to circulate in many countries of the world, especially in South America, where Brazil, in particular, observes a high plateau in its epidemic. Globally, there are more than 77,000 cases.
“The most likely scenario in the medium and long term is that of maintaining low noise viral circulation on a European scale, making the hypothesis of the complete elimpox virus infection unlikely And leading to a risk of epidemic, even seasonal, recovery, in France and in Europe, “wrote the health and anticipation of health risk (COVARS) committee in its second opinion published Monday, November 28.
Vaccinate people at risk
The epidemic risk can come from several places: countries that have been affected by the unprecedented epidemic of the last six months; African countries, such as Cameroon, the Central African Republic or the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the virus is endemic and where the virus comes from the current epidemic; And, finally, the “zoonotic reservoir”, that is to say a contamination of humans by domestic or wild animals. “A rebound scenario is not to be excluded, but it is not the privileged scenario”, however tempers Simon Cauchemez, modeler at the Institut Pasteur and member of the Covars.
To prevent this disaster scenario, scientists thus argue for a complete vaccination, in two doses, of all people at risk, that is to say men with sex with other men, And trans people with multiple sexual partners, people who prostitute themselves as well as their close entourage. A population estimated at some 300,000 people by the High Authority for Health.
Of the 132,750 injections made in France on November 17, we only know that around 20,000 are second injections. “We have not benefited, for the Monkeypox, from the same interconnection of the databases as for the covid, we do not know today how many people have received two doses of vaccine, regrets Brigitte Autran, infectiologist and president of covars. Large -scale cohorts studies must be carried out to assess the immunity of the population because the risk of reintroduction of the virus will depend on the level of vaccination. “ Studies show that ‘a single injection only induces low rates of antibodies neutralizing, who increase only after the second injection.
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