Monkeypox virus: A concern for the whole world!

The likelihood of successive viral pandemics has become a major source of worry. Even though MPXV has been there for more than 50 years and has resurfaced numerous times, little is known about its virological makeup and the features of the disease it produces. The monkeypox virus is a member of the subfamily Chordopoxvirinae of the family Poxviridae and the genus Orthopoxvirus and resembles other orthopoxviruses in its morphology. MPXVs are oval or brick-shaped with a lipoprotein-based outer membrane. The MPV genome is a double-stranded linear DNA (197 kb). The virus was first identified in 1958 in monkeys in a Danish laboratory hence the name “monkey pox”. Since the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reported the first human case of monkeypox in 1970 in a 9-month-old boy, the disease has spread to other parts of Africa, mainly West and Central Africa, with cases confirmed outside of Africa recently. The global MPXV outbreak commenced in May 2022 and was labelled a public health emergency of international concern on July 23, 2022.