MPOX IS SPREADING - THESE ARE SCIENTISTS' KEY QUESTIONS

• Published in: Nature (London) 2024-09, Vol.633 (8028), p.16-17
• Main Author: Reardon, Sara
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Epidemics; Fatalities; Genetic analysis; Genomic analysis; HIV; Human immunodeficiency virus; Immune system; Infections; Malnutrition; Medical research; Mortality; Mpox; Mutation; Public health; Sexually transmitted diseases; Smallpox; STD; Vaccines; Viral diseases
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/d41586-024-02793-9

When the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a public-health emergency over mpox last month, it was because a concerning form of the virus that causes the disease had spread to multiple African countries where it had never been seen before. Another factor that can confound fatality rates is a secondary health condition. [...]people living with HIV - who represent a large proportion of the population in many African countries - die from mpox at twice the rate of the general population2, especially if their HIV is untreated. [...]the relatively high death rate among children under age 5 could be partly because of malnutrition, which is common among kids in rural parts of the DRC, Liesenborghs says. An analysis posted ahead of peer review on the preprint server medRxiv3shows that clade lb's genome contains genetic mutations that seem to have been induced by the human immune system, suggesting that it has been infecting humans for some time. [...]those recipients were primarily young, healthy men who have sex with men, a population that was particularly susceptible during that outbreak.