More vaccinations are needed! Perhaps, the Smallpox eradication in 1980 was too successful!
"Scientists have identified the fire-footed rope squirrel as a potential mpox reservoir host—a discovery that could help researchers understand cross-species spillover.
DNA from the squirrel matched virus samples taken from mpox-infected sooty mangabey monkeys during an outbreak in Ivory Coast. Researchers believe the monkeys were infected after eating squirrels with the virus.
Implications: While more research is needed, the findings are “a landmark contribution to understanding mpox dynamics,” said an Africa CDC biologist."
"... In a preprint ... the team ended up pinpointing one particular rodent species: the fire-footed rope squirrel (Funisciurus pyrropus).
“Exposure to those squirrels is likely responsible for some human mpox outbreaks as well,” ...
Monkeypox virus (MPXV) was first discovered in research monkeys in a laboratory in Copenhagen in 1958—hence its name. (The disease was renamed mpox in 2022 to avoid stigmatizing patients, but the virus is still known as monkeypox virus.) Researchers have long assumed the real reservoirs for the virus in nature are rodents. The number of mpox outbreaks has increased dramatically since its cousin, smallpox, was declared eradicated in 1980. That’s in part because immunization against smallpox ceased and that vaccine also provides protection against mpox. ..."
From the abstract:
"Mpox, caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV; Orthopoxvirus monkeypox), is on the rise in West and Central Africa. Most outbreaks are short-lived, but MPXV has recently caused larger epidemics driven by sustained human-to-human transmission.
It is widely accepted that mpox outbreaks originate in zoonotic events. African rodents, especially squirrels, are suspected to be involved in MPXV emergence, but no formal link to human or nonhuman primate outbreaks has been established. Here, we describe an outbreak of MPXV in a group of wild sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) in Taï National Park (Côte d’Ivoire).
The outbreak affected one third of the group between January and April 2023, killing four infants. To track its origin, we analysed rodents and wildlife carcasses from the region.
We identified a MPXV-infected fire-footed rope squirrel (Funisciurus pyrropus), found dead 3 km from the mangabey territory 12 weeks before the outbreak. MPXV genomes from the squirrel and the mangabey were identical.
To establish a potential link between these species, we investigated the diet of these mangabeys. We found one video record of consumption of the same squirrel species in 2014.
In addition, we performed metabarcoding analyses of faecal samples collected from mangabeys in the four months prior to the outbreak, which identified two faecal samples containing the DNA of the fire-footed rope squirrel. One of these samples was also the first positive for MPXV in the mangabey group.
This represents an exceptionally rare case of direct detection of an interspecies transmission event, made possible only by long-term health monitoring. Our findings strongly suggest rope squirrels were the source of the MPXV outbreak in mangabeys. Since squirrels and nonhuman primates are hunted, traded, and consumed by humans in West and Central Africa, exposure to these animals is likely responsible for at least a fraction of human mpox outbreaks."
Global Health NOW: Striking on New Antivenom Potential; April Recap; and Sweltering Conditions in Cambodia’s Sweatshops
A sooty mangabey mother carries her baby with mpox lesions on its face in Taï National Park.
