The MpoxVax AFRIVAC Project (Expanding a prospective, clinical trial examining the immune response of participants receiving Modified Vaccinia Ankara vaccine to Africa) gathers an interdisciplinary consortium of internationally recognised research leaders from 6 Partner institutions from Europe and Africa with the overall ambition to rapidly deploy technology and develop new knowledge that contributes to ending the current Mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and surrounding countries. The Mpox epidemic in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is accelerating at an alarming rate, and a significant number of cases have been reported beyond DRC´s borders. The surge led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to issue its highest global health alert - a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) in August 2024.

According to the latest available data the cumulative number of cases for 2024 is over 22,000, including over 600 deaths, with cases reported in 20 countries across the African continent. The three countries with the majority of the cases in 2024 are DRC (9,513), Burundi, (2,861), and Uganda, (1,126). A significant number of suspected mpox cases, that are clinically compatible with mpox remain untested due to limited diagnostic capacity in some African countries and thus never get
confirmed. 

The MpoxVax AFRIVAC will expand a trial exploring the effectiveness of Mpox vaccination that is currently running in Ireland to additional countries in Africa that are affected by an ongoing outbreak of Mpox infection. By significantly leveraging the clinical and laboratory structure developed by the pre-existing MpoxVax trial in Ireland, our project aims to rapidly deploy technology and develop new knowledge to contribute to ending the current Mpox outbreak in the DRC and surrounding countries.

 
The MpoxVax AFRIVAC partners link expertise in vaccine clinical trials, virology, diagnostics development, biobanking and global health. The scope of the project includes sharing of new technology in Mpox diagnostics with affected countries, determining the relative immunogenicity of Mpox vaccination in immunosuppressed individuals and women as well as comparing the durability of immune responses in different populations (European versus African). Additionally, this Project will contribute to wider research to determine a correlate of protection that can be used clinically to determine vaccine effectiveness in terms of thresholds of immunity as well as appropriate interval re-vaccination strategies.