Monkeypox outbreaks have occurred around the world this year (2022). According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), statistics as of July 1, 2022 show that monkeypox cases have occurred in 52 countries and regions, with a total of 5783 confirmed cases. Recent studies have also claimed that monkeypox is mutating faster than expected.
Does it mean that the monkeypox virus is different from the past "version"? Shi Xinru, director of the Center for Emerging Virus Infection Research at Chang Gung University, said in an interview with Tide Health that virus gene sequencing industry email list technology has only been widely used in recent years, and there has been no similar research on the mutation of smallpox virus in the past. Therefore, more research is needed to clarify whether the mutation rate of monkeypox virus is accelerated.
Shi Xinru said that the spread of monkeypox virus was small in the past, and from the scope and scale of monkeypox infection this year, the virus may indeed mutate. However, monkeypox is a DNA virus with a relatively stable mutation rate. The possible route of transmission is first from animals such as monkeys, through rodents, and then to humans, and mutates when it spreads between different species, rather than mutating due to infecting humans.