CHARACTERIZATION OF MPOX

Leidos Biomedical Research, Inc., Frederick MD

Investigators

Abstract

Since 2022, DCR and LBR have conducted monkeypox treatment trials in the Democratic Republic of Congo. This monkeypox Characterization non-severable task order complements this prior research given DCR/LBR further analyses of the PALM007 RCT results highlighted remaining monkeypox knowledge gaps, specifically related to the risk of death or severe disease from clade I monkeypox. In PALM007, patients who presented with flat/malignant lesions (as opposed to the classically appearing and evolving lesions) had an increased risk of mortality: 7/7 (100%) of those with flat lesions died compared with 3/590 (0.5%) of the remaining study participants. Patients presenting with thousands of lesions experiencing mild/moderate disease and others with prolonged disease after presenting with few lesions. It is suspected that this is likely related to host-related risk factors, however, researchers are unable to evaluate this fully retrospectively with the samples available.