Monkeypox trial offers hope for faster recovery

The United Kingdom is preparing to begin a trial of a monkeypox treatment in an effort to combat an outbreak of the virus that has infected more than 40,000 people worldwide.

There are no proven therapeutics to speed recovery in people who develop monkeypox, which can cause blistering of the skin and be life-threatening in rare cases.

The UK trial will explore the potential of the antiviral tecovirimat, which is a medication designed to treat smallpox, a close relative of monkeypox.

A single vaccine is used against both viruses, and researchers hope tecovirimat will prove similarly effective in a dual role.

The UK National Institute for Health and Care Research commissioned the study, which is being run by the same team that tested potential treatments for COVID-19.

The institute has already begun recruiting volunteers for the trial.

"Monkeypox is a distressing and sometimes dangerous infection," said trial leader Peter Horby, who is a professor of emerging infections at the University of Oxford. "Although the early data on tecovirimat are promising, only a randomized clinical trial will provide the level of evidence we need to treat patients with confidence."

The current global outbreak of monkeypox represents the first time the disease has spread widely outside West and Central Africa. The first cluster of infections outside endemic nations occurred in May in the UK, where more than 3,200 infections have been confirmed, according to Our World in Data.

The virus has spread through much of Europe, with Germany now experiencing a similar level of infections to the UK, and Spain reporting more than 6,200 cases, including two deaths.

The United States has the most confirmed infections globally this year, with almost 16,000, and Brazil has reported close to 3,800 cases.

"For the benefit of current and future patients worldwide who have been diagnosed with monkeypox, we need definitive evidence that tecovirimat is safe and effective," Horby said.

The trial will recruit 500 people who have become infected with monkeypox. Half of the volunteers will receive a placebo, and half will be provided with a 14-day course of tecovirimat, which they will take as a twice daily pill.

In order to find out whether tecovirimat helps patients recover faster than the placebo, researchers will assess the rate at which skin lesions heal, as well as the time it takes for throat and lesion swabs to return a negative test for the virus. The team will also monitor the proportion of patients who require hospitalization during the trial.