Monkey pox, “at least one new strain discovered in the US”

“At least one new strain of the” monkeypox “virus has been identified in the US, distinct from the one so far the only one identified worldwide and also widespread in that country. Genetic analysis revealed that, while the majority of cases Americans appear to be closely related to the outbreak in Europe, two patients, one in Florida and one in Virginia, have versions of the virus that appear similar to the one isolated from a patient in Texas last year. ” This was reported by the biologist Enrico Bucci, a lecturer in the States at the Temple University of Philadelphia. The expert analyzes what it may mean to have detected these ‘divergences’, in an intervention on the ‘Sheet’. “Although the three divergent viruses are clearly related to each other and have a common ancestor – writes Bucci – they differ from each other more than is observed in the isolated strain in Europe. The infected people in these three cases have contracted the virus in Nigeria, one elsewhere in West Africa and the third in the Middle East or East Africa. This apparent wide spread of a related virus – one that differs from the European epidemic strain – suggests that monkeypox outbreaks outside the countries in which the virus is considered endemic were triggered by various export events, followed by more or less widespread local circulation “. The last event “is the one that led to the increase in cases we observe today, but evidently previously there have been more and more distinct episodes, which may or may not have given rise to large outbreaks – he observes – About this last point, it is important to note that only today infected patients and sampled in 2021 have been correctly diagnosed: this fact suggests that many cases may simply not have been previously detected “. In addition to the three cases cited, Bucci speaks of “another patient, again infected last year and then sampled in Maryland”, who “provided an even different genome, closer to the one currently circulating in Europe, but which could in turn represent a hitherto unidentified evolutionary branch “. At the moment, continues the scientist’s reflection, “it seems probable that some mass event has led to a strong spread in 2022, but we do not know if and to what extent other outbreaks, ignited in previous years, had already led to temporary expansions of infections”. The US genomes also seem to suggest “a human-to-human transmission that began years ago, probably started in countries where the virus was endemic, and subsequently extended thanks to the increase of the virus with this capacity”. The nature of the disease and the way in which it spreads, the expert points out, “does not suggest that we are facing another pandemic like that of Sars-CoV-2. However, the undetectable spread in some specific communities promises some complications for the management of this new virus “.