New variants of monkey pox have been detected. This complicates the picture

Monkey pox increases its range. The disease was first discovered outside of Africa on May 7 this year. in Great Britain, has already been confirmed in Poland. Scientists are still investigating the mystery of this epidemic. Recently, they have come to a disturbing discovery: new variants of monkey pox have emerged, meaning the virus mutates faster than predicted. What does this mean for us?

1. Research from the American CDC shows that at least two variants of the monkey pox virus are circulating in the United States
2. Suspected they may come from two different epidemics, and the pathogen has been increasing its range for a while, but nobody noticed
3. The researchers noted that the virus that causes monkey pox mutates faster than expected
4. More current information can be found on the Onet homepage

The two variants of monkey pox are different from the others

According to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which looks at the sequencing of monkey pox (a study of samples from infected individuals), at least two genetically different variants of the virus circulate in the United States.

In the US, 27 cases of monkey pox have been detected so far, not all have been sequenced yet. Most are genetically similar to cases in Europe, as well as cases in 2021, the source of which was a trip to Nigeria (a resident of Maryland fell ill at the time). The genetic codes of the two, in turn, are similar to last year’s infection in a man from Texas who stayed for some time in Nigeria. The samples are from people who have also recently traveled to Africa.

“Genetic analysis has shown that although the cases are similar, the variants of the virus are not related to each other,” said Jennifer McQuiston, associate director at the CDC’s High Consequence Pathogens and Pathology.

Experts concluded that these cases came from two different epidemics, making it difficult to understand their origin. It also raises the question of how long the monkey pox virus has been circulating outside Africa and how it is transmitted.

“It is as if we started watching the series and did not know from which episode” – said prof. Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, added that we are only now beginning to learn about the pathogen’s origins.

The rest of the text below the video.

The virus mutates faster than expected

The variants discovered in the USA are not the only mutations of the monkey pox virus. More than ever, changes in the genetic material of the pathogen have been detected. However, it is not the quantity that worries researchers, but the pace at which these changes occur.

«Based on evolutionary timelines, scientists would expect a virus like monkey pox to acquire so many mutations in maybe 50 years, not fourh. That’s quite remarkable, “said Richard Neher, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Basel.

This accelerated evolution seems to have started around 2017. From the virus sequences available, it appears that the monkey pox virus has been circulating in humans since then, but transmission levels have not been high. This has only changed recently, and it may have been caused by a return to normalcy after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially by organizing mass events or traveling between continents.

Why is the monkey pox virus spreading at such a pace?

Scientists are considering several hypotheses that would answer the question of why the monkey pox virus spreads so quickly. One of them says that the pathogen began to evolve to be more easily transmitted between people. It seems, however, that the experts who believe that The monkey pox virus had been increasing its range for some time, but no one noticed.

“We see more today because we look more” – said Prof. Andrew Read of Pennsylvania State University, who studies the evolution of infectious disease.

Researchers agree that the monkey pox virus as a DNA virus is a completely different type of pathogen than the coronavirus (RNA virus) and has no chance of transmitting and mutating as quickly and efficiently as it does. There is, however, the other side of the coin. DNA viruses generally have long genomes. This monkey pox is seven times longer than the coronavirus genome. «The fact that [monkey pox virus – ed] has many genes means different things can happen»- comments prof. Read.

According to prof. Stephen Morse, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, however, we are still in a very early stage of the monkey pox epidemic. On the one hand, “if a particular variant were capable of more cycles of human-to-human transmission, we would have to know it”. On the other hand, much more pathogen research is needed to know if one variant is actually spreading faster than another.

“The size of this epidemic does not necessarily mean that the virus itself has changed” – noted prof. Rimoin, adding that it is too early to know if monkey pox has evolved in any meaningful way.

Monkey pox – the most important information

Monkey pox is a viral disease that has so far mainly occurred in Africa. Apart from the 2003 epidemic in the US, with dozens of infections occurring in the past decade, only a few cases outside Africa have been detected. This is because the current infections are worrying – monkey pox has never spread on such a scale, both in terms of the number of cases, as well as the range of occurrence (almost all continents).

Monkey pox was first identified in monkeys in 1958. In humans it was confirmed in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Until recently, the occurrence of this smallpox in humans was found in several African countries where it is endemic.

The disease, like most viral diseases, is very contagious, but the patient does not become infected until he or she has symptoms of monkey pox infection. The monkey pox mortality rate is 10%, and in the case of the West African variety it is even lower, around 1%.

Importantly, monkey pox has nothing to do with chicken pox. It is closer to smallpox – a disease that was eliminated in the 70s (it was recognized as eradicated in 1980).

When it comes to treating monkey pox, recent studies show that the drug that was once used for smallpox, tecovirimate, may be effective. However, more attention is paid to prevention. While there is no vaccine against monkey pox, the smallpox vaccine is highly effective (there are two preparations of this type).

As Prof. Agnieszka Szuster-Ciesielska from the Department of Virology and Immunology, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, “guarantees [she] very high, almost XNUMX% protection up to five years after the injection”.

– Later, its effectiveness begins to decline. However, even with lower levels of protection, it still protects against smallpox for decades. In one of the scientific works, we can read that this protection still existed after 75 years – she said.

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