Researchers share draft genome sequences of monkeypox virus
- May 22, 2022
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
Researchers share draft genome sequences of monkeypox virus
Subject: Science & Technology
Section: Disease
Context: ‘The draft genome indicates that the virus circulating outside Africa belongs to the West African clade’
Content: Monkeypox is a rare zoonotic disease that is caused by the monkeypox virus, belonging to the Orthopoxvirus genus, which also includes the variola virus (causes smallpox).
- Although the natural reservoir of monkeypox remains unknown, rodents and non-human primates may harbor the virus and infect people. It was firstly identified in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in monkeys kept for research purposes and in 1970 in humans in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
- Monkeypox is now endemic in some Central and West African countries, being rarely reported outside Africa. The virus is transmitted from one person to another by close contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials
- Monkeypox virus (MPV) also known as the Moneypox virus, is a double-stranded DNA, zoonotic virus and a species of the genus Orthopoxvirus in the family Poxviridae. It is one of the human orthopoxviruses that includes variola (VARV), cowpox (CPX), and vaccinia (VACV) viruses.
Draft genome assembly: The genome assembly is just a preliminary result, and more work would need to be done to generate a more complete and accurate version of the genome.
- The researchers from Belgium — the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, and the University of Antwerp, Antwerp were able to reconstruct 98.9% of the genome.
Phylogenetic analysis is the study of the evolutionary development of a species or a group of organisms or a particular characteristic of an organism.
- The researchers have found that the virus now spreading outside Africa belongs to the West African clade.
- The phylogenetic analysis of the draft genome indicates that the 2022 virus belongs to the West African clade and is most closely related to viruses associated with the exportation of monkeypox virus from Nigeria to several countries in 2018 and 2019, namely the United Kingdom, Israel and Singapore.
Transmissibility is determined by the infectivity of the pathogen, the contagiousness of the infected individual, the susceptibility of the exposed individual, the contact patterns between the infected individual and the exposed individual, and the environmental stress exerted on the pathogen during transmission.
- Monkeypox has been detected in people who have not come in contact with those with monkeypox infection, which suggests that the virus might be spreading silently.
- As per the WHO, on May 20, the geographically dispersed nature of the cases across Europe and beyond suggests that transmission may have been ongoing for some time.
- If monkeypox can indeed spread asymptomatically then it would make it harder to track the virus.