When a neglected tropical disease goes global: early estimates from the Monkeypox outbreak, the first 1,054 cases

Acta Biomed. 2022 Dec 16;93(6):e2022330. doi: 10.23750/abm.v93i6.13306.ABSTRACTMonkeypox virus (MPXV), genus Orthopoxvirus, is a large double-stranded DNA virus (200-250 nm), that is evolutionarily related to human variola virus (VARV) (1), and causes a clinical syndrome quite similar to smallpox, with a generally less severe outcome (1,2). MPXV has a wide range of hosts and reservoirs in wild animals, and since 1970 has been commonly acknowledged as a human pathogen, endemic to Central and Western African countries through two distinctive clades (2,3). Central African clade (CAC) is responsible of the majority of 20,000 incident cases of the last decade, with a case-fatality-ratio of 7-10%, compared to < 4% for Western African clade (WAC) (4). In 2003, the importation of infected pests (Cynomys spp, i.e. "prairie dogs") to United Stated resulted in the first MPXV-WAC outbreak out of Africa, involving a total of 81 human cases, with no documented deaths (5). In the next decade, the spreading of the MPVX-WAC to Nigeria, has then resulted in multiple travel-related cases in non-endemic countries (4,6). Since May 7th, 2022, an unprecedented outbreak of MPXV-WAC infections with around 1,051 documented cases (Table 1) is occurring across Europe (89.7% of cases), Americas (10.7%), and Australia (0.6%), mostly occurring in subjects with no established travel link to endemic areas (7-13). Reported cases are mostly characterized by mild clinical features (Table 2) (7,9,10,12,13), w...
Source: Acta Bio-Medica : Atenei Parmensis - Category: General Medicine Authors: Source Type: research