JUA KIVU is an international collaboration of partners in Central Africa and Europe, addressing key knowledge gaps on mpox clade Ib. Mpox clade Ib is a newly recognized variant of mpox virus, viruses that have been present in animal reservoirs in Central and Western Africa from where they occasionally cause outbreaks of human disease when humans get in contact with infected animals or animal products. As part of a collaborative outbreak research capacity building program, the team involved in JUA KIVU found that there was a novel spillover in Eastern DRC, in South Kivu province, in a mining region from where the virus seems to have originated. As this virus spread fast in and beyond the region, we designed a series of linked studies to address critical knowledge that will help support public health initiatives to contain the outbreak. Key questions addressed are; who are getting infected and how does the novel sublineage spread, what drives the main spread? how can the epidemic be tracked nationally and internationally? Is there transmission into the community? Where did the virus originate from? What is the role of co-infections in severity of disease and can that be used to guide development of treatment? All studies aim to develop the capacity for continued independent follow-up studies of the key partners in DRC, Rwanda and Burundi as the tools and expertise needed to answer these questions are also applicable in case of other disease outbreaks. By doing so, we expect impact well beyond the current project. Not only has the consortium managed to provide some of the first global data on this problem, as can be seen from the high impact publications, but also the researchers from DRC, Rwanda and Burundi collaboratively have developed protocols to address these questions, despite the sometimes challenging political situation.
