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WHO investigating whether rapid spread of monkeypox linked to mutations

More than 35,000 cases have been reported to the WHO in 92 countries. | Font: AFP

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Several ongoing studies are attempting to determine whether genetic changes in monkeypox contribute to the rapid spread of the disease, he said AFP World Health Organization (WHO).

Two separate clades or variants of the virus have been named the Congo Basin (Central Africa) clade and the West African clade after the two regions to which they are endemic.

But on Friday WHO renamed the groups into clade I and clade II, respectively, to avoid the risk of geographic stigmatization.

He also announced that clade II has two subclades, IIa and IIb, with viruses within the latter identified as being responsible for the current global outbreak.

On Wednesday, the health agency UN clades IIa and IIb are stated to be related and share a recent common ancestor, so IIb is not a branch of IIa.

Mutation research

Clade IIb contains viruses collected in the 1970s and as of 2017.

“Looking at the genome, you see some genetic differences between the viruses in the current outbreak and the older clade IIb viruses,” the scientist said. WHO to AFP.

“However, nothing is known about the relevance of these genetic changes, and research is ongoing to determine the impact (if any) of these mutations on disease transmission and severity,” he added.

In addition, “it is still early, both during the outbreak and in laboratory studies, to know whether the increase in infections is due to observed changes in the virus genotype or to host factors” in humans.

Outbreaks of monkeypox infections began to be reported in May outside endemic countries in Africa.

WHO Declared it an international public health emergency on July 23.

were brought to the attention WHO more than 35,000 cases in 92 countries, 12 deaths.

Almost all of the new cases are in Europe and America, and experts have studied samples of these cases. (AFP)


Source: RPP

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