IDSA/HIVMA Support Rapid CDC Response to Monkeypox Treatment Access Issues

Medical societies urge further work on vaccination, testing, treatment and data collection

IDSA and HIVMA appreciate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s swift action in responding to health care provider concerns regarding the significant procedural barriers required to obtain tecovirimat, or TPOXX, through the Expanded Access for Investigational New Drug program. The original process created significant obstacles and delays in treating severely ill patients with the monkeypox virus. 

The reduction in paperwork and other documentation required to obtain treatment is welcome news, and we anticipate it will expedite access to treatment. However, more work remains to streamline and expand access to treatment and to collect data to further inform tecovirimat use.

Reducing barriers to treatment is also important to make it easier for private and community-based clinicians to treat patients with monkeypox, as well as help address equity and expand provider capacity.

We call on the National Institutes of Health, in collaboration with other federal agencies, clinicians and scientists, to fund clinical trials to collect data to further inform the use of tecovirimat in tandem to it being made available in as streamlined a fashion as possible, such as through an early or expanded access program.

In addition to expanding access to treatment, we welcome and urge continued partnership with the federal government to expand access to testing and vaccination as we collectively work to control the monkeypox outbreak.

Daniel P. McQuillen, MD, FIDSA – President, Infectious Diseases Society of America

Marwan Haddad, MD, MPH – Chair, HIV Medicine Association