Listen to Story The new monkeypox (or mpox) outbreak has already reached other continents after having been seen in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the African continent. It surfaced in 2022, but this time the strain of the virus is different from the previous one. This strain has recently jumped from animal to man and is called Clade 1b.
The last strain, Clade 1, had settled down in 10 months. The WHO has sounded an alarm calling the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern. The mpox virus is also known as a cousin of the smallpox virus.
And because they are related in some ways, it is being said that the smallpox vaccine can provide some protection against the mpox virus too. While smallpox was officially eradicated in the US in 1972, it was eradicated in India in 1979. Since then, mpox is being seen more in unvaccinated people.
Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, infectious diseases expert and member of IMA Kochi said, “There is no vaccine created specifically for the mpox virus. When the global mpox outbreak occurred in 2022, we were hoping that the smallpox vaccine could cross-protect against mpox." Both mpox and smallpox are related to the vaccinia virus.
The existing smallpox vaccine is created based on the vaccinia virus. So, imagine there are Virus A, Virus B and Virus C. They have created a vaccine on the basis of the Virus C with an aim to protect against A and B.
In other words, a vaccine that offers cross protection against smallpox also gives .