6 ms·

How can you test the effectiveness of this drug against smallpox?

elihu 5y ago
From the article: > Because smallpox is eradicated, the effectiveness of Tembexa was studied in animals infected with viruses that are closely related to the variola virus. Effectiveness was determined by measuring animals’ survival at the end of the studies. More animals treated with Tembexa survived compared to the animals treated with placebo. FDA approved Tembexa under the agency’s Animal Rule, which allows findings from adequate and well-controlled animal efficacy studies to serve as the basis of an approval when it is not feasible or ethical to conduct efficacy trials in humans. That's a little disconcerting that there are viruses that are similar, that they're severe enough to kill the host, and that they're willing to use it in tests. Perhaps these viruses they're using aren't nearly as contagious? Or they're not transmissible to humans?
- 5co 5y ago
  There’s a variant of pox for most animals, they aren’t dangerous to us. There’s even 2 variants of kangeroopox. Not even joking.
  - haimez 5y ago
    TIL factoid of the month, easily.
    - ChrisRR 5y ago
      Your second little fact is that "factoid" means a lie that has been spread so widely that it's treated as a fact, and doesn't mean a little fact
      - Ariarule 5y ago
        Meta-humor, maybe? "A factoid is either an invented or assumed statement presented as a fact, or a true but brief or trivial item of news or information" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid
- retrac 5y ago
  Vaccinia, the smallpox vaccine, is a very closely related virus. You infect someone with it, they maybe get a bad rash at worst, and then they are immune to many of the poxes. Cowpox can and has been used the same way, too. This is why vaccination is named after cows. Some poxes are awful for the primary host. Camelpox apparently kills about a quarter of camels that contract it. Just like smallpox (humanpox?) kills about 25% of humans, actually. But camelpox rarely even infects humans, and is self-limiting when it does. Monkeypox is bad in humans. Almost as bad as smallpox, but not as contagious.
  - makomk 5y ago
    Speaking of which, guess what showed up in Wales recently? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57431322 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57431322 (This kind of thing is why the UK has national-level contract tracing capabilities. Occasionally something shows up that's not particularly easy to spread, but bad enough that it needs stopping sooner rather than later. I think we've had a few SARS and MERS cases too.)

From the article: > Because smallpox is eradicated, the effectiveness of Tembexa was studied in animals infected with viruses that are closely related to the variola virus. Effectiveness was determined by measuring animals’ survival at the end of the studies. More animals treated with Tembexa survived compared to the animals treated with placebo. FDA approved Tembexa under the agency’s Animal Rule, which allows findings from adequate and well-controlled animal efficacy studies to serve as the basis of an approval when it is not feasible or ethical to conduct efficacy trials in humans. That's a little disconcerting that there are viruses that are similar, that they're severe enough to kill the host, and that they're willing to use it in tests. Perhaps these viruses they're using aren't nearly as contagious? Or they're not transmissible to humans?

5co 5y ago
There’s a variant of pox for most animals, they aren’t dangerous to us. There’s even 2 variants of kangeroopox. Not even joking.
- haimez 5y ago
  TIL factoid of the month, easily.
  - ChrisRR 5y ago
    Your second little fact is that "factoid" means a lie that has been spread so widely that it's treated as a fact, and doesn't mean a little fact
    - Ariarule 5y ago
      Meta-humor, maybe? "A factoid is either an invented or assumed statement presented as a fact, or a true but brief or trivial item of news or information" -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factoid
retrac 5y ago
Vaccinia, the smallpox vaccine, is a very closely related virus. You infect someone with it, they maybe get a bad rash at worst, and then they are immune to many of the poxes. Cowpox can and has been used the same way, too. This is why vaccination is named after cows. Some poxes are awful for the primary host. Camelpox apparently kills about a quarter of camels that contract it. Just like smallpox (humanpox?) kills about 25% of humans, actually. But camelpox rarely even infects humans, and is self-limiting when it does. Monkeypox is bad in humans. Almost as bad as smallpox, but not as contagious.
- makomk 5y ago
  Speaking of which, guess what showed up in Wales recently? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57431322 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-57431322 (This kind of thing is why the UK has national-level contract tracing capabilities. Occasionally something shows up that's not particularly easy to spread, but bad enough that it needs stopping sooner rather than later. I think we've had a few SARS and MERS cases too.)