Emergence of a Deadly Monkeypox

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I guess this brings a whole new meaning to the phrase "sick little monkey".

More than 30 international scientists said last week that the monkeypox label is discriminatory and stigmatizing, and there’s an “urgent” need to rename it. The current name doesn’t fit with WHO guidelines that recommend avoiding geographic regions and animal names, a spokesperson said.

The proposal echoes a similar controversy that erupted when the WHO moved quickly to rename SARS-CoV-2 after people around the world referred to it as the China or Wuhan virus in the absence of an official designation. The actual animal source of monkeypox, which has been found in a wide variety of mammals, remains unknown.

You should have named the topic "Emergence of a Deadly Monkeypox".

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene on Thursday became the latest agency to begin offering monkeypox vaccines to sexually active gay and bisexual men.

All men over age 18 who have sex with men and have had multiple or anonymous partners in the last 14 days are eligible to get the shots, the department announced. The two-dose vaccine offered, called Jynneos, is FDA-approved for both monkeypox and smallpox.

"Anyone can get and spread monkeypox, but most cases in the current outbreak are among gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men," the city's health department said in a statement, adding, "men who have sex or other intimate contact with men they met through dating apps or social media platforms, or at clubs, raves, sex parties, saunas, or other large gatherings may be at higher risk of having been recently exposed."

The move followed the example of the U.K.'s Health Security Agency and Canada's Public Health Agency. The U.K. announced Tuesday that doctors could consider monkeypox vaccines for men at higher risk of exposure. According to the guidance, that could be "someone who, for example, has multiple partners, participates in group sex or attends 'sex on premises' venues."

In Canada, vaccination clinics have offered monkeypox shots to gay, bisexual and other men who had sex with men over the last couple of weeks in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

The trend marks an expansion of monkeypox vaccination efforts; previously, the vaccines were administered only to people with known exposure to the virus.

As of Thursday afternoon, New York City's Department of Health had confirmed 30 cases of orthopoxvirus, "which is presumed to be monkeypox."

That data appears to be ahead of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tally, which totaled to 22 cases in New York state. New York's vaccination appointments quickly filled, prompting the department to issue a follow-up statement asking residents to check back on Sunday for additional slots. The city will hold its annual Pride celebration and parade this weekend

Researchers investigating the genetic make-up of the monkeypox virus have said the virus appears to have mutated far, far more than would normally be expected

The work has been outlined in a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine. As part of the study, Portuguese researchers collected 15 monkeypox virus sequences in total—mostly from Portugal—and reconstructed their genetic data

In the latest study, researchers discovered around 50 genetic variations in the viruses they studied compared to ones from 2018 and 2019.

Our data reveals additional clues of ongoing viral evolution and potential human adaptation," the team wrote, adding that they had identified proteins that are known to interact with peoples' immune systems. However, more studies will be needed to find out more about the potential role these might play in adapting the monkeypox virus for human spread.

João Paulo Gomes, head of the Genomics & Bioinformatics Unit at the National Institute of Health in Portugal who co-authored the study, said it is not known whether the mutations have contributed to increased transmissibility between people.

Another notable finding from the study is that most of the mutations are of a particular type that could have been introduced by a human defence mechanism called APOBEC3, which works by introducing mutations to viruses in order to stop them from working properly, said Pam Vallely, professor of medical virology at the University of Manchester.