Scientists believe: Monkey pox has spread “under the radar” for years
Experts have found descendants of versions of the virus that were identified in Israel, Britain and Nigeria about four years ago, so they argued that it could not have spread “from Africa just a few weeks ago”
The monkey pox virus, recently diagnosed in hundreds of people in 26 countries, may have been circulating quietly for years before its sudden spread around the world. This is speculated by a number of scientists.
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Infectious disease experts and scientists in genetic laboratories are trying to find clues to explain why a virus, which has been in West Africa for half a century and usually does not spread very easily to humans, appeared so dramatically last month.
“The transmission may not have been detected for some time,” said Dr. Rosamund Lewis, the technical director for testing for the spread of the virus, during a briefing last Wednesday. “What we do not know is how long it has been spreading. I do not know if it is weeks, months or maybe a few years. “
At the Leuven University in Belgium, virology professor Mark van Rennett told NBC: “Everyone is trying to get an idea of a pretty important question: how long have these viruses been circulating, under the radar? I think no one believes it jumped from Africa a few weeks ago.”
Scientists from the University of Edinburgh, Scottland, have sequenced samples from the latest outbreak, and studied offspring of a version of monkey pox identified in Israel, Singapore, Nigeria and the UK between 2017 and 2019.
While researchers have identified an “unexpectedly large number” of changes in the genetic code of the virus since that time, some experts argue that these changes do not necessarily explain the breadth of the current outbreak.
In Africa, most human cases of monkey pox have occurred through exposure to infected animals such as rodents, rather than through human-to-human transmission.
“What probably happened is that an endemic infectious disease from Africa found its way into a social and sexual network, and then was greatly helped by major events like raves in Belgium to spread around the world,” said Dr. A. Adelja, a senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center. .
“Then, because it is transmitted through close contact in sexual encounters, many of the lesions are mistakenly made for other infections, which are transmitted through sexual contact, which may delay the diagnosis,” he added.
Monkey chickenpox infection can cause painful lesions on the surface of the body which leave lasting scars. Most of the cases identified in the United States or Europe were mild, and some were even very atypical in that they were mistaken for another disease. Most cases have occurred among homosexuals, bisexuals, and in general other men who have sex with men.
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