airborne, skin wound contact and sexual contact. The Democratic Republic of Congo witnesed several sporadic outbreaks of monkeypox back in the 1970s when the disease was considered endemic to certain parts of Africa, however the disease spread across the non-endemic zones to many parts of Europe, North America, Brazil, Russia, Australia and India covering most commonwealth nations.
A Placebo-controlled randomized trial of tecovirimat an antiviral drug that in non-hospitalized monkeypox patients is set to monitor the efficacy and safety of the drug. The trial is conducted by Sir Peter Horby, Professor of Emerging Infections and Global Health at the University of Oxford and the Director of the new Pandemic Sciences Institute, and Sir Martin Landray, Professor of Medicine & Epidemiology at Oxford Population Health.
Tecovirimat prevents the virus from exiting infected cells and prevents its spread inside the body. Tecovirimat was licensed previously in the year by the Medicines and Health products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for monkeypox after it indicated positive results in animal studies and safety in healthy human participants.
The study participants are set to be randomly allocated to receive either a 14-day course of 600 mg tecovirimat twice daily or a matched placebo treatment. The research will be conducted in a community-based trial, with participants taking the treatment or placebo in their own homes. Eligible participants are to be selected following clinical assessment and diagnosis of monkeypox infection as part of the usual NHS clinical care. Researchers are to look at 500 participants across Britain and look into how effective tecovirimat is in helping participants recover faster.
