Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic said Friday it was seeking European approval to use its mpox vaccine in children aged 12 to 17, after the WHO declared the current virus surge a global public health emergency.
The World Health Organization (WHO) this week declared the rapid spread of the new, more dangerous mpox strain, dubbed Clade 1b, a public health emergency of international concern — the highest alarm the UN agency can sound.
Bavarian Nordic’s vaccine is currently only approved for people 18 years and older.
“Children and adolescents are disproportionately affected by mpox in the ongoing outbreak in Africa, highlighting the importance and urgency to broaden the access to vaccines and therapies for this vulnerable population,” Bavarian Nordic chief executive Paul Chaplin said in a statement.
Mpox is considered to be a rare disease. It primarily occurs in remote parts of Central and West Africa, near tropical rainforests. Cases outside of Africa have been extremely rare.
Mpox is not as easily spread as some diseases, but transmission can occur through close contact with the blood, bodily fluids, or skin lesions of an infected animal or human. It can also be spread to humans from animals when they get bitten or through direct contact with an animal’s skin, blood, or body fluids. The virus can also spread from person to person, although it’s less easily spread this way compared to other diseases. It cannot spread via casual contact, so you can’t get it from touching surfaces or belongings that a person with monkeypox has touched.
But, any infectious, deadly disease could potentially be used as a biological weapon.
