Science at UM [S04-ep08]: The Mpox Epidemic
This week in Science at UM Martine Peeters from the Transvihmi laboratory Transvihmi laboratory and Eddy Lusamaki from INRB talk to us about the Mpox virus epidemic. In the second part of the program, we go to the Cemipai to talk about other viruses with Aymeric Neyret. The program airs every Wednesday at 6 p.m. on Divergence FM 93.9.
In the summer of 2022, as the world emerges from two years of pandemic, a new threat is looming: Mpox, incorrectly referred to as monkeypox. This virus is of zoonotic origin and related to human smallpox, a disease that was declared eradicated in 1980. Until then confined to rural and forested areas of West and Central Africa, Mpox appeared in non-endemic areas in May 2022, where it was found for the first time on European soil. By July 2022, the WHO had already recorded 75 non-endemic countries affected and declared the virus a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC). This was the time when prevention posters describing the early symptoms of the disease, modes of transmission, and recommendations in case of doubt began to appear in the restrooms of bars and nightclubs. It was also a time when the disease gained a scandalous reputation reminiscent of another era: Mpox was said to mainly affect men who have sex with men. While gay people are indeed overrepresented among those diagnosed, as always, there are many factors that explain this bias in interpretation.
Unlike Covid, the existence of a vaccine against Mpox, the same one that eradicated smallpox 40 years earlier, made it possible to control this early outbreak in 2022. But in August 2024, a new alert was issued, and the WHO declared a new public health emergency of international concern. Attention then turned to the DRC and several neighboring countries affected by a resurgence of infections and the emergence of a possible new, more transmissible viral strain.
Martine Peeters from the Transvihmi laboratory and Eddy Lusamaki fromthe INRB have been studying the different strains of Mpox present in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 2018 as part of the AFROSCREEN1 and PANAFPOX2 projects, conducted jointly by the National Institute for Research (INRB) in the DRC, the IRD, and Inserm. Their findings, published in Cell on October 24, 2024, provide important new information about the genetic diversity of Mpox circulating in the DRC and the predominant type of transmission.
To go further:
In the second part of the program, we bring you a repeat broadcast of our report from Cemipai, the Center for the Study of Infectious Diseases and Anti-Infective Pharmacology, where we meet Aymeric Neyret, a research engineer at the University of Montpellier and specialist in electron microscopy. Safely sheltered behind his biological safety cabinet, he scrutinizes viruses to better identify the molecules capable of neutralizing them and developing new treatments.
At UM Science, you have the program, so let's get started!
Co-production: Divergence FM / University of Montpellier
Host: Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interview: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Reporting and editing: Lucie Lecherbonnier / Aline Périault
Production: Tom Chevalier
Listen to the program “A l’UM la science” on Divergence FM 93.9
