The different mox epidemics in Africa respond to different logics, according to a study published this Thursday, October 24, which shows that the new variant of the virus is transmitted mainly between humans, while contamination by animals continues to be the majority in the previous version.
“Human cases of mox in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are due to two transmission patterns,” summarizes this study, published in the journal Cell.
Several epidemics of mpox, also known as “monkeypox”, are currently occurring in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and, to a lesser extent, in neighboring countries. They are fueled by two different versions of the virus, clade 1, which has been circulating for decades, and clade 1b, a new variant.
The latter was identified in particular in a patient in Germany, one of the rare cases in which this version has been detected outside the African continent. Since 2022, a global epidemic of mpox has also continued, a disease that causes multiple skin lesions, but involves an even different version of the virus, known as clade 2.
Two logics in action
This complex situation, which led the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare mpox a global emergency, leads researchers to question the specificities of these different versions, whether in terms of dangerousness, contagiousness or modes of transmission. .
It is on this last point that the Cell study focused. Historically, mpox is best known for being transmitted through contact with animals, particularly through consumption of contaminated meat. But recent epidemics also appear to be related to contamination from one human being to another, particularly during sexual relations.
The study, which is based on the genetic analysis of viruses extracted from several hundred patients, concludes that both logics work. The cases related to version 1a seem to come mainly from contamination by different animals, while variant 1b much more frequently presents a mutation typical of its adaptation to humans. Therefore, this suggests that it is first transmitted from one human to another.
Source: BFM TV
