An international group of 26 researchers, including 11 from the Tropical Medicine Institute (IMT), at Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de São Paulo (FMUSP), reported the sequencing of an almost complete genome of the first confirmed case of monkeypox detected in Brazil.

In order to do this, a skin sample was collected from a 41-year-old male patient with a recent travel history to Portugal and Spain and clinical manifestations suggestive of the disease. The procedure took place on June 7 of this year at the Institute of Infectious Diseases Emílio Ribas.

 Outbreak in progress

Monkeypox, transmitted by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), is considered a viral zoonosis (when the virus is transmitted to humans from animals), and has symptoms very similar to those seen in smallpox patients, although it is clinically less severe. There is an ongoing outbreak of the disease, confirmed in May 2022 following a cluster of cases found in the UK.

According to the article published by the researchers in Revista do IMT (IMT Journal), there are currently more than 4,000 confirmed cases of MPXV in 47 countries, 14 of which are registered in Brazil, including 3 by local transmission.

 Real-time tracking

With the new sequencing, IMT researchers show that the first case of the monkeypox virus in Brazil is closely related to the sequences from Portugal, Germany, the USA and Spain.

They also underscore the importance of confirming the diagnosis through a rapid and reliable sequencing technique, in addition to MPXV genomic surveillance.

“Sequences are always important to understand how the viral evolution will be and to plan the first steps on how the epidemic will happen in our environment”, says Prof. Ester Sabino, researcher at the IMT and professor at the Department of Infectious and Parasitic Diseases at FMUSP.