A recent study reveals that the monkeypox, or mpox,
Most cases since have largely been treated as independent spillover events with low levels of circulation in the human population. However, in 2022, an international MPXV epidemic emerged and human mpox cases were detected outside countries with known endemic reservoirs, indicating that it was not solely a zoonotic infection. Comparisons of MPXV genome sequences from 2018 with sequences from the 2022 epidemic have indicated a mutation rate much higher than would be expected for double-stranded
Moreover, assuming a rate of ~6 APOBEC3 mutations per year, O’Toole et al. estimate that the recent MPXV clade IIb has been circulating in humans since at least 2016.
“Although the B.1 lineage across the world is now diminished – though not yet eradicated – the human epidemic from which it arose continues unabated,” write O’Toole et al. “Surveillance needs to be global if MPXV is to be eliminated from the human population and then prevented from reemerging.”
Reference: “APOBEC3 deaminase editing in mpox virus as evidence for sustained human transmission since at least 2016” by Áine O’Toole, Richard A. Neher, Nnaemeka Ndodo, Vitor Borges, Ben Gannon, João Paulo Gomes, Natalie Groves, David J. King, Daniel Maloney, Philippe Lemey, Kuiama Lewandowski, Nicholas Loman, Richard Myers, Ifeanyi F. Omah, Marc A. Suchard, Michael Worobey, Meera Chand, Chikwe Ihekweazu, David Ulaeto, Ifedayo Adetifa and Andrew Rambaut, 2 November 2023, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.adg8116