Monkeypox Mutating 12 Times Faster Than Expected: “We Haven’t Seen This Before”
USA 🇺🇸: June 30th Monkeypox case update:
New confirmed cases: 45
Total confirmed cases: 396
1 day growth rate: 13%USA added nearly 200 cases this past 4 days, while it took almost 40 days to add the first 200 cases. Wow. https://t.co/q8HCjttXTa
— Monkeypoxtally (@Monkeypoxtally) June 30, 2022
This, unfortunately, is going to get much worse in the next few weeks. If the vaccine isn’t available where you live, be aware of who you’re coming into close contact with, and my god, if you yourself think you’re infected, seek testing and treatment immediately. Via LiveScience:
The monkeypox virus has mutated at a far faster rate than would normally be expected and likely underwent a period of “accelerated evolution,”a new study suggests.
The virus, which has infected more than 3,500 people in 48 countries since its detection outside Africa in May, may be more infectious due to dozens of new mutations. In all, the virus carries 50 new mutations not seen in previous strains detected from 2018 to 2019, according to a new study published June 24 in the journal Nature Medicine. Scientists usually don’t expect viruses like monkeypox to gain more than one or two mutations each year, the study authors noted.
As a large double-stranded DNA virus, monkeypox is much more able to correct replication errors than an RNA virus such as HIV, meaning that the current monkeypox strain should have really only accumulated a handful of mutations since it first started circulating in 2018. But, after collecting DNA from 15 monkeypox viral samples and reconstructing their genetic information, the researchers found that the real mutation rate was six to 12 times higher than they expected.
The massive jump in the monkey virus’s rate of mutation “is far more than one would expect considering previous estimates of the substitution rate for Orthopoxviruses,” the researchers wrote in the paper. “Our data reveals additional clues of ongoing viral evolution and potential human adaptation.”
Outbreaks have been spreading in L.A. and New York, and now it’s happening in Texas, too. Via KHOU in Houston:
On Thursday, more cases of monkeypox were confirmed in Texas.
The Texas Department of Health is now reporting 12 cases statewide, three of which are not linked to travel, indicating that transmission is now happening in the community.
Currently, there are four cases confirmed in the Greater Houston Area, all of which have been linked to travel.
Dr. Luis Ostrosky, chief of infectious diseases at UTHealth and Memorial Hermann, says although Monkeypox isn’t new, the current rate of transmission is.
“This is a very abnormal pattern for transmission,” Ostrosky said. “We haven’t seen this before. To the point where it’s about to be declared a global pandemic.”
This transmission chain appears to be very efficient, Ostrosky said, and is spread through close contact.
“It has been primarily transmitting through networks of men who have sex with men, at this point,” he said.
[KHOU]
Finally, here’s more from monkeypox patient Matt Ford, whom we heard from earlier this week:
