A new sublineage of the Mpox virus, Clade 1b, is spreading rapidly across sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ODIN-Mpox project aims to implement environmental surveillance for the Mpox virus in areas surrounding the outbreak zones, with the expectation that this will yield valuable insights into circulating virus lineages and the Mpox epidemic situation in high-risk regions.
Building on knowledge previously gathered in the ODIN project, the ODIN-Mpox project will utilize environmental surveillance of pathogens to detect Mpox outbreaks and assess their scale in the Democratic Republic of Congo and nearby countries. The information generated by the project has also potential to be applied to global monitoring of Mpox virus spread. Wastewater samples will be collected also from transportation hubs, such as international airports nearby and in the epidemic zone.
Within the ODIN-Mpox consortium, research groups from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, and the United Kingdom are working to create a foundation for environmental monitoring Mpox virus, and also to establish a broader basis for environmental surveillance of various viruses in sub-Saharan Africa. The role of the Waterborne Pathogens Research Group within the consortium is to lead the setup of environmental monitoring in collaboration with local partner organizations and public health laboratories in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, and Burkina Faso.