At the United Nations General Assembly meeting today, US President Joe Biden announced new support for Africa's mpox response, including 1 million vaccine doses and at least $500 million in further support.

In the UN address, Biden called on other countries and groups to step up their help for Africa. "We call on governments, charities, and businesses to match our pledge—and make this a $1 billion commitment to the people of Africa."

In a fact sheet, the White House said 10,000 vaccine doses arrived in Nigeria in August and 50,000 doses arrived this month in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The next 300,000 doses will be available immediately for distribution through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the World Health Organization (WHO) Access and Allocation Mechanism. US officials will deliver the rest of the doses in tranches, based on country progress in administering the doses and with coordination with Gavi.

Support aligns with regional response plan

Meanwhile, the financial support will be delivered bilaterally through existing partnerships with African countries as well as through multilateral groups. The White House added that the investments will align with the preparedness and response plan recently announced the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the WHO. 

The federal government has already deployed staff to the DRC and neighboring countries, including epidemiologists, laboratorians, and risk communication experts.

The US Department of Health and Human Services today said the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response is donating the 1 million doses to the international response, and it added that it is lending Bavarian Nordic, the maker of the Jynneos vaccine, 200,000 doses to ensure commercial supply to the US market without diminishing the company's ability to fulfill international orders and donations.

African health officials have estimated the region needs at least 10 million vaccine doses for the outbreak response. A number of groups have also announced donations, including the European Commission, Japan's government, and Bavarian Nordic itself.

A survey of primary care patients in Texas found that most expected to receive antibiotics for illnesses commonly caused by viruses, researchers reported yesterday in the Annals of Family Medicine.

The survey, developed by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and administered from January 2020 to June 2021 at six public primary care clinics and two private emergency departments in Harris County, Texas, sought to assess patient expectations for antibiotics for acute diarrhea, sore throat, cold/flu, sinus infections, and bronchitis symptoms. 

For each symptom illness, respondents were asked to respond to the statements "Taking antibiotics will help you get better quickly" and "You should take antibiotics to avoid getting sicker" using a 5-point Likert scale, and were asked if they knew about risks associated with antibiotic use. The researchers also compared the difference in patient expectations by sociodemographic groups and between public and private healthcare systems.

Lack of knowledge about potential risks

Of the 564 patients surveyed, 93% expected to receive an antibiotic for one of the five pre-defined illnesses/symptoms, with 84% believing that antibiotics would improve bronchitis, followed by sinus infections (72%), sore throat (66%), cold/flu (64%), and diarrhea (36%). Overall, 37% of patients lacked knowledge of antibiotic risks.

Compared with private, public clinic patients were nearly twice as likely to expect antibiotics for diarrhea (odds ratio [OR], 1.8; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2 to 2.8), sore throat (OR, 2.2; 95% CI, 1.5 to 3.2), cold/flu (OR, 1.5; 95% CI, 1.0 to 2.3), and overall (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.3). Lack of knowledge of potential risks of antibiotic use was associated with increased antibiotic expectations for diarrhea (OR, 1.6; 95% CI, 1.1 to 2.4) and cold/flu symptoms (OR, 2.9; 95% CI, 2.0 to 4.4). Lower education and inadequate health literacy were predictors of antibiotic expectations for diarrhea. 

"Future stewardship interventions to reduce inappropriate patient antibiotic expectations should (1) inform patients of the symptoms/illnesses that antibiotics treat and (2) emphasize the individual harms/risks (or harms/risks to others close to an individual) of antibiotics," the researchers wrote, adding that they are developing a patient-clinician antibiotic education tool based on the findings.

The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) announced last week that it has awarded $29 million to Swiss drugmaker Basilea Pharmaceutica to develop two first-in-class antifungal drugs to treat drug-resistant invasive fungal infections. 

The funding will help Basilea develop Fosmanogepix, a broad-spectrum antifungal that targets drug-resistant invasive candidiasis—including infections caused by Candida auris—and invasive mold infections, and BAL2062, which has activity against drug-resistant Aspergillus strains. 

Part of preparedness efforts

BARDA is part of the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response within the US Department of Health and Human Services and is one the leading public sector funders of antibiotics and diagnostics for both biothreat pathogens and opportunistic secondary infections. The award is a component of BARDA's medical countermeasures portfolio.

"Fosmanogepix and BAL2062 are the first antifungals to enter the BARDA portfolio and will address the urgent need for novel drugs to treat fungal infections that might arise following a mass casualty incident, such as a radiological or nuclear incident," the agency said in a Basilea press release.

As part of the contract, BARDA will also develop pediatric formulations of the drugs, along with antifungal susceptibility testing diagnostics.

A study yesterday in JAMA Network Open shows a higher risk of childhood seizures—but not epilepsy—in kids born to moms who contracted flu during pregnancy. 

Maternal fever in pregnancy has been linked to poor outcomes in children, including increased risk of neuropsychiatric conditions such as autism and depression. The study sought to define the relationship between maternal flu and febrile seizures, which typically occur from 6 months to 5 years of age.

The findings come from 1,316,107 mother-baby pairs identified from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2013, using records in Taiwan's Maternal and Child Health Database. Children were followed up until December 31, 2020.

Among the 75,835 children whose mothers had flu during pregnancy, 2,456 (3.2%) developed seizures during their follow-up period, the authors said. 

Boys more likely to have seizures

The cumulative risk of childhood seizures was significantly higher among children who had been exposed to maternal influenza virus infections. 

The adjusted hazard ratios were 1.09 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.05 to 1.14) for seizures, 1.11 (95% CI, 1.06 to 1.17) for febrile convulsions, and 1.04 (95% CI, 0.97 to 1.13) for epilepsy. Further analysis showed the risk of epilepsy was not statistically significant. 

For all children in the study, advanced maternal age, gestational high blood pressure, cesarean delivery, and being a boy were associated with increased risk of seizures. 

"Further studies are needed to elucidate the mechanisms underlying childhood neurological development," the authors concluded.