Today in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provided data on safety outcomes on 369 patients who receiving the monkeypox antiviral drug tecovirimat (Tpoxx), noting that few adverse events were reported.

In related news, a study spotlighted neurologic complications such as encephalitis and seizures in monkeypox patients, Los Angeles County is investigating the death of an infected person, and federal officials are considering widening the vaccine pool to include people with HIV.

Side effects in 3.5% of Tpoxx users

Tpoxx was developed and tested for treating smallpox, but it is currently widely used in the United States to treat monkeypox patients under a Food and Drug Administration Expanded Access Investigational New Drug (EA-IND) ruling.

Of the 369 patients in today's study who were administered Tpoxx orally, adverse events were reported in 3.5% of patient, with only one adverse event classified as serious.

Roughly half of those administered the drug had HIV, and the median interval from initiation of tecovirimat to subjective improvement was 3 days and did not differ by HIV infection status, the authors said. Tecovirimat was taken for a prescribed 14-day regimen.

"Although this report could not evaluate efficacy, clinicians are encouraged to continue following CDC guidelines for tecovirimat use in patients with severe disease or at risk for severe disease," the authors said.

Tpoxx recipients were 97.7% male, with a median age of 36.5 years. Among patients with available data, 38.8% were reported to be non-Hispanic White, 34.7% were Hispanic or Latino, and 17.9% were non-Hispanic Black or African American.

The CDC reported 230 more monkeypox cases yesterday, raising the total to 21,504.

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