NEW DELHI: have made a significant discovery regarding the disease formerly known as monkeypox, now renamed mpox, which created a global public health emergency in 2022.
According to their findings, the virus had been circulating in humans for over five years before the unprecedented outbreak. This revelation has prompted calls for enhanced global surveillance to eliminate the disease from human populations and prevent its resurgence, reported The Guardian.
Mpox was initially identified in the 1950s during outbreaks among research laboratory monkeys.The first recorded human case appeared in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). For the following 50 years, sporadic cases were primarily reported in the DRC and Nigeria.
Before 2020, most human mpox infections were attributed to contact with rodents capable of carrying the virus in regions where the disease is endemic. In rare instances of human-to-human transmission, it typically affected family members living in the same household.
However, the global mpox outbreak in 2022 was distinctive. Researchers reported that viruses collected from patients in that year displayed an unexpectedly high number of mutations. Normally, the mpox virus acquires one mutation every three years, but viruses from 2022 exhibited a remarkable 42 mutations when compared to viruses collected in Nigeria in 2018.
A closer examination revealed that the majority of mutations resulted from interactions with the human immune system, notably a key antiviral enzyme called apobec3. This finding indicates that the human immune system played a crucial role in driving the virus’s evolution, marking the transition to sustained human-to-human transmission. Based on the rate of mutations, scientists estimate that mpox has been circulating in humans since at least 2016.
While the global mpox outbreak was primarily linked to a lineage called B.1, it has since declined due to public health measures and vaccination campaigns, particularly targeting men who have sex with men, who accounted for the majority of cases.
However, researchers warn that several countries, including the UK, the US, Portugal, India, and Thailand, are still reporting other virus lineages, almost all of which trace back to Nigeria. This suggests that the human epidemic responsible for the 2022 outbreak continues to persist.
According to their findings, the virus had been circulating in humans for over five years before the unprecedented outbreak. This revelation has prompted calls for enhanced global surveillance to eliminate the disease from human populations and prevent its resurgence, reported The Guardian.
Mpox was initially identified in the 1950s during outbreaks among research laboratory monkeys.The first recorded human case appeared in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). For the following 50 years, sporadic cases were primarily reported in the DRC and Nigeria.
Before 2020, most human mpox infections were attributed to contact with rodents capable of carrying the virus in regions where the disease is endemic. In rare instances of human-to-human transmission, it typically affected family members living in the same household.
However, the global mpox outbreak in 2022 was distinctive. Researchers reported that viruses collected from patients in that year displayed an unexpectedly high number of mutations. Normally, the mpox virus acquires one mutation every three years, but viruses from 2022 exhibited a remarkable 42 mutations when compared to viruses collected in Nigeria in 2018.
A closer examination revealed that the majority of mutations resulted from interactions with the human immune system, notably a key antiviral enzyme called apobec3. This finding indicates that the human immune system played a crucial role in driving the virus’s evolution, marking the transition to sustained human-to-human transmission. Based on the rate of mutations, scientists estimate that mpox has been circulating in humans since at least 2016.
While the global mpox outbreak was primarily linked to a lineage called B.1, it has since declined due to public health measures and vaccination campaigns, particularly targeting men who have sex with men, who accounted for the majority of cases.
However, researchers warn that several countries, including the UK, the US, Portugal, India, and Thailand, are still reporting other virus lineages, almost all of which trace back to Nigeria. This suggests that the human epidemic responsible for the 2022 outbreak continues to persist.
Denial of responsibility! Swift Telecast is an automatic aggregator of the all world’s media. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials, please contact us by email – swifttelecast.com. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.