Review of the prevalence, diagnostics, and containment measures of the current mpox outbreak

Monkeypox virus outbreak: Can evolution guide us to new treatments or vaccines?Until the beginning of 2022, human monkeypox was not a well-known disease among the general population.Sporadic cases of monkeypox occurred mainly in Central Africa and West Africa, where the virus is endemic.However, since May, 2022, cases of monkeypox have been confirmed outside of Central Africa and West Africa and the outbreak has been increasing at an alarming rate after the first case was confirmed in the UK on May 6 th .The disease has also been spreading throughout other regions, such as Africa, the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, and Western Pacific.According to OurWorldinData, as of July 25, there have been 16 313 confirmed cases of monkeypox worldwide in 75 countries.On July 23, WHO declared that monkeypox was a public health emergency.Monkeypox virus belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus, the same genus as the virus that causes smallpox.Though there is no specific treatment for monkeypox, the genetic similarity between the viruses that cause the two diseases allows for the use of treatments and vaccines that are specific to smallpox.African countries have been dealing with the monkeypox virus for at least 50 years, and scientists have been warning about a potential spread to other regions.Smallpox is highly infectious and it is transmitted by variola virus.After the eradication of smallpox in 1980, an epidemiological niche was created generating an opportunity for the spread of monkeypox virus.A confer ence report by Bunge and colleagues (2022) published in Vaccine showed that there has been an increase in cases since 1970, when the first human case of monkeypox was confirmed: from 48 confirmed cases in six African countries (between 1970 and 1979), increasing to 343 in 1980, and 520 in 1990.The first case outside the endemic region occurred in 2003 in the USA, with 47 cases caused by infected animals from Ghana that were sold as exotic pets.At that time, human-to-human transmission was not very common, with most cases related to animal reservoirs.The increase in cases of monkeypox could be related to, among other factors, climate change, armed conflicts in the region, rainforest exploitation, mobile populations, and waning herd immunity due to the eradication of smallpox.In the 2022 outbreak, transmission has been distinct from previous African cases and human-to-human transmission is common.