Monkeypox outbreak: Virus strain detected in India not linked to European outbreak, suggests ICMR data

Scientists informed that the few cases that belong to the A.2 strain, including the first two cases of monkeypox detected in Kerala, seem to all have travel links to the Middle East or West Africa.

Representational image (Credits: PTI)

New Delhi: Scientists from the Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV), Pune have uploaded the genetic sequences of the monkeypox virus on a public database for researchers. The data revealed that the genetic sequencing of samples from the first two cases of monkeypox detected in Kerala show that the strain doing the rounds in India is different from the ones associated with the ‘super-spreader’ events identified in Europe.

The genome sequence of the isolated strain revealed a 99.85 per cent match with the West Africa clade of monkeypox.

Currently, there are over 20,000 monkeypox cases globally, which are believed to have happened through super-spreader events in Europe and a majority of these belong to the strain designated ‘B.1’. However, a small cluster of cases from across the world appear to belong to a separate strain — ‘A.2’.

In a twitter thread, Vinod Scaria, a leading genomic scientist with IGIB, informed that the two genomes identified in Kerala belong to this small distinct A.2 cluster. “We might be looking at a distinct cluster of human-human transmission and possibly unrecognised for years (sic),” he said.

The IGIB scientist also pointed out that the few cases that belong to the A.2 strain seem to all have travel links to the Middle East or West Africa.

The curious case of Indian #Monkeypox Genomes
Wonderful effort by clinicians in @KeralaHealth who diagnosed the disease and researchers at @icmr_niv, we now have sequences of MPX isolates in @GISAID .

This short is on what the early genomes say.
Analysis @bani_jolly pic.twitter.com/xsQcOiQNHx

— Vinod Scaria (@vinodscaria) July 27, 2022

Monkeypox is now a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC), with a large number of cases in Europe. There are a total of four confirmed cases in India, all men in their 30s.