Retrospective detection of asymptomatic monkeypox virus infections among male sexual health clinic attendees in Belgium

Abstract: The magnitude of the 2022 multi-country monkeypox virus (MPXV) outbreak has surpassed any preceding outbreak. It is unclear whether asymptomatic or otherwise undiagnosed infections are fuelling this epidemic. In this study, we aimed to assess whether undiagnosed infections occurred among men attending a Belgian sexual health clinic in May 2022. We retrospectively screened 224 samples collected for gonorrhea and chlamydia testing using an MPXV PCR assay and identified MPXV-DNA-positive samples from four men. At the time of sampling, one man had a painful rash, and three men had report... Mehr ...

Verfasser: De Baetselier, Irith
Van Dijck, Christophe
Kenyon, Chris
Coppens, Jasmine
Michiels, Johan
de Block, Tessa
Smet, Hilde
Coppens, Sandra
Vanroye, Fien
Bugert, Joachim Jakob
Girl, Philipp
Zange, Sabine
Liesenborghs, Laurens
Brosius, Isabel
van Griensven, Johan
Selhorst, Philippe
Florence, Eric
Van den Bossche, Dorien
Ariën, Kevin
Rezende, Antonio Mauro
Vercauteren, Koen
Van Esbroeck, Marjan
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
Schlagwörter: Chemistry / Biology / Human medicine
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-28956702
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://hdl.handle.net/10067/1906790151162165141

Abstract: The magnitude of the 2022 multi-country monkeypox virus (MPXV) outbreak has surpassed any preceding outbreak. It is unclear whether asymptomatic or otherwise undiagnosed infections are fuelling this epidemic. In this study, we aimed to assess whether undiagnosed infections occurred among men attending a Belgian sexual health clinic in May 2022. We retrospectively screened 224 samples collected for gonorrhea and chlamydia testing using an MPXV PCR assay and identified MPXV-DNA-positive samples from four men. At the time of sampling, one man had a painful rash, and three men had reported no symptoms. Upon clinical examination 21-37 days later, these three men were free of clinical signs, and they reported not having experienced any symptoms. Serology confirmed MPXV exposure in all three men, and MPXV was cultured from two cases. These findings show that certain cases of monkeypox remain undiagnosed and suggest that testing and quarantining of individuals reporting symptoms may not suffice to contain the outbreak. Findings of unrecognized or asymptomatic monkeypox virus (MPXV) infections with replication-competent virus in humans suggest that a lack of recognized, clinical symptoms could play a role in virus transmission and the magnitude of the 2022 MPXV outbreak.