Enhancing surveillance and detection of Mpox across Africa

The International Mpox Response Consortium (IMReC), a multi-continental, multi-sectoral network of researchers, clinicians, and community-based organizations, jointly developed and led by Dr. Jason Kindrachuk (University of Manitoba, Canada), Dr. Placide Mbala (Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale, Democratic Republic of Congo), and Dr. Anne W Rimoin (University of California Los Angeles), with the collective dual-aim of rapidly mobilizing existing mpox virus (MPXV; also known as monkeypox virus) expertise to contain the ongoing public health emergency of international concern due to Clade I mpox, while also continuing to build on substantial international collaboration to address MPXV public health emergencies across the African continent. Rapid response funding from CIHR and IDRC enabled IMReC to pilot a strategy for rapid and coordinated international efforts for data collection, evaluation, sharing and knowledge deployment for addressing arising local and global public health threats resulting from emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Collectively, IMReC addressed critical substantial clinical, epidemiological, virological and community-based knowledge gaps from 2023 to present as Clade I mpox rapidly expanded across the Democratic Republic of the Congo and to adjacent countries in East Africa. Our ongoing goal has been to develop IMReC into a sustainable network that is harmonized with existing infrastructure and resources across Canada and Africa, most notably the Monkeypox Threat Reduction Network (MPX-TRN), a US Defense Threat Reduction Agency-funded effort co-led by Drs. Mbala and Rimoin focused on Clade I MPXV across multiple countries in Central Africa. In consideration of the increased risk for mpox acquisition among those that identify as sex workers, gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), people living with HIV, IMReC includes multi- and inter-disciplinary Canadian and international community-based research teams and representatives. This includes ongoing partnerships with the Community Based Research Centre and the Village Lab in Canada, Health Options for Young Men on HIV/AIDS/STI (HOYMAS) in Kenya, and direct partnership with peer educators among stigmatized and marginalized groups in multiple provinces within DRC. From a Canadian perspective, the team represents a pan-Canadian effort with representation from across the country and committed access to existing patient samples from the hardest hit regions of Canada. Importantly, although MPX has historically been neglected as a major research focus, this diverse team brings together many of the foremost international experts on MPXV who provide continued advisement for national and international public health agencies including the Public Health Agency of Canada and the World Health Organization (WHO). Building on the collective strengths in subject matter expertise, IMReC continues to ensure that mpox research and response activities are planned, executed, and evaluated based on a world-leading foundation of existing knowledge, while simultaneously recognizing the need for a rapid response to understand and contain ongoing and future mpox public health emergencies.