A prospective and retrospective multi-center, cohort study for clinical, virologic and immunologic characterization of monkeypox virus clade IIb by the International Monkeypox Response Consortium (IMREC)

The International Monkeypox Response Consortium (IMREC) is a pan-continental network comprised of subject matter experts with extensive infectious disease experience, including monkeypox virus. With strong track record of equitable collaborative infrastructure during emergencies, we will utilize our diverse team to rapidly investigate critical knowledge gaps to provide rapid evidence to guide policy for the current monkeypox public health emergency of international concern. Members of IMREC include subject matter experts, researchers, clinicians, and community advocates from North America, Africa, and Europe. Coordinated IMREC actions and results-oriented objectives will aim to: I) building network providing rapid real-world evidence to health leaders and policy makers; ii) assessing real-world vaccine effectiveness and serosurveillance across IMREC study sites; and iii) contributing to global monkeypox surveillance and modeling of transmission dynamics across different clades and new settings. For coordination of data acquisition and dissemination, IMREC activities will be divided across the following workstreams: Surveillance, clinical and basic sciences, evidence policy, communication, and engagement implementation. The overall IMREC added value relies on multi-country/sites and cross-sectional study on risk groups in providing robust and effective evidence actions, and scale access to, and uptake of, targeted vaccine effectiveness /impact on at-risk and marginalized groups through understanding of monkeypox.