Sequencing of #monkeypox by Portugal
-most likely single origin
-West African clade confirmed
-Still, the outbreak virus diverges a mean of 50 SNPs from those 2018-2019 viruses
-hypothesis of hypermutated virus not discarded
-1st signs of microevolution; might be use for tracking
https://twitter.com/MoreauGabarain/status/1528835843313606663?s=20&t=U1hl24MaLLb0MZUGtWV2KA
https://twitter.com/borges__vitor/status/1528713665326751744?s=20&t=U1hl24MaLLb0MZUGtWV2KA
Transmission
Fun facts about monkeypox virus: 1. Monkeypox is transmitted by aerosols, direct, & indirect contact 2. Experimental aerosols do not replicate conditions IRL 3. Poxviruses
are DNA viruses & stable in the environment 4. Hospitals already use airborne precautions with monkeypox
https://twitter.com/angie_rasmussen/status/1527034948040896512?s=20&t=4Ct40fGMKeE9NvlB410sHQ
Potentiel
Given their less picky nature,poxviruses can infect things through diverse means including touch, droplet,and airborne modes where they can spread from initial inoculation site causing systemic disease over several days.Severe
illness is often associated w/ bacterial coinfection
Good news: as DNA viruses, poxviruses evolve way more slowly than RNA viruses like SARS-Cov2. Nevertheless, they can also show rapid adaptation via gene duplication, which in the current genome assemblies
has not been
https://twitter.com/TWenseleers/status/1528476533643530240?s=20&t=4Ct40fGMKeE9NvlB410sHQ
@cggbamford
Poxviruses are considered fairly generalist with regard to what they infect,
in that they don’t use specific receptors, have lots of genes, replicate in the cytoplasm, and are super stable in the environment.
Although large DNA viruses have a low mutation rate, this isn’t really a hindrance for poxviruses when they
encounter a new environment as they already harbour lots of genetic diversity (and genes!), can recombine, and can adapt by amplifying gene numbers.
Given their significant diversity and generalist predisposition, poxviruses often jump from one host
species to another (likely from rodents). One of the best known examples is monkeypox or cowpox, both of which are actually rodent-borne.
Their diversity and their generalist capabilities make poxviruses an obvious threat.The eradication of variola virus has left space for another related infection.Although replaced initially by
widespread use of vaccinia,widespread vaccination ceased 50ya and immunity is waning.
We must be careful w/ orthopox's and not
let novel ones adapt further to us.Control of future pox threats should involve limiting global zoonosis, population level surveillance, and shutting down transmission chains. Ensuring we have enough vaccine/antivirals should be paramount.
Variole / Small pox
@cggbamford
The most well known poxvirus is the virus that caused the devastatingly lethal, debilitating, and history-changing, smallpox disease in people known as variola virus of which there two types: major and minor
After killing 500 million people since
1880, variola virus was controlled using an original “Jennerian” vaccine based on inoculation with a related virus (vaccinia) found in animals, providing cross protection against variola virus but was less likely to cause significant disease
Thankfully the variola virus was eradicated in 1980, leaving humans with only a single endemic poxvirus, the relatively benign molluscum contagiosum virus, which is actually distantly related to the variola-like "orthopox" viruses. Humans don’t have
any para- or yata-poxviruses.