Human Monkeypox Virus and Host Immunity: New Challenges in Diagnostics and Treatment Strategies.

The monkeypox virus (MPXV), responsible for human disease, has historically been limited to the African countries, with only a few isolated instances reported elsewhere in the world. Nevertheless, in recent years, there have been occurrences of monkeypox in regions where the disease is typically absent, which has garnered global interest. Within a period of less than four months, the incidence of MPXV infections has surged to over 48,000 cases, resulting in a total of 13 deaths. This chapter has addressed the genetics of the pox virus, specifically the human monkeypox virus, and its interaction with the immune systems of host organisms. The present chapter is skillfully constructed, encompassing diagnostic methodologies that span from traditional to developing molecular techniques. Furthermore, the chapter provides a succinct analysis of the therapeutic methods employed, potential future developments, and the various emerging difficulties encountered in illness management.

Role of vaccination in patients with human monkeypox virus and its cardiovascular manifestations.

Human monkeypox, caused by the monkeypox virus (MPXV), is an emerging infectious disease with the potential for human-to-human transmission and diverse clinical presentations. While generally considered milder than smallpox, it can lead to severe cardiovascular complications. The virus primarily spreads through contact with infected animals or through human-to-human transmission. Cardiovascular involvement in human monkeypox is rare but has been associated with myocarditis, pericarditis, arrhythmias, and even fulminant myocardial infarction. Vaccination plays a crucial role in preventing and controlling monkeypox, but the eradication of smallpox has left global populations vulnerable. This review explores the cardiovascular manifestations of human monkeypox, the role of vaccination in disease prevention, and the importance of continued research and development of effective vaccines to protect against this emerging infectious threat. The global impact of monkeypox outbreaks, particularly on vulnerable populations, further highlights the importance of understanding and addressing this disease.

Global knowledge and attitudes towards mpox (monkeypox) among healthcare workers: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: The recent increase in human mpox (monkeypox) cases emphasizes the importance of early detection, prompt response and preventive management to control the spread of the disease. Healthcare workers (HCWs) play a crucial role in this process. This study aimed to determine the global knowledge and attitudes towards mpox among HCWs. METHODS: This study searched multiple databases, including Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed/MEDLINE, Science Direct, Web of Science, Embase, Springer and ProQuest, to locate various publications. The search was limited to English-language articles published between May 2022 (when the increase in mpox incidence was reported) and August 2023. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) quality checklist was utilized to evaluate the quality of the included studies. Data were obtained using a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and subsequently scrutinized through STATA software, version 14. The heterogeneity of the studies was assessed using the inverse variance and Cochran Q statistics based on the I2 test statistics. The Dersimonian and Liard random effects models were used where heterogeneity existed. Subgroup analysis and univariate and multivariable metaregression techniques were used to examine the causes of heterogeneity. RESULTS: A total of 22 studies, including 22 studies for knowledge (27 731 HCWs) and 6 studies for attitudes (14 388 HCWs), were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled estimates for good knowledge and positive attitudes among HCWs were 26.0% (95% confidence interval [CI] 17.8 to 34.2) and 34.6% (95% CI 19.0 to 50.2), respectively. Moreover, the knowledge was 34.8% (95% CI 24.1 to 45.6) among HCWs with <5 y of work experience and 41.6% (95% CI 33.1 to 50) among individuals possessing >5 y of professional background. CONCLUSIONS: Good knowledge of HCWs is at a low level. It is suggested that training sessions should be tailored towards younger HCWs with less healthcare experience. Additionally, it is essential to identify strategies on how to improve the knowledge and attitudes for better practice about the disease in HCWs worldwide.

Stability of Monkeypox Virus in Body Fluids and Wastewater.

An outbreak of human mpox infection in nonendemic countries appears to have been driven largely by transmission through body fluids or skin-to-skin contact during sexual activity. We evaluated the stability of monkeypox virus (MPXV) in different environments and specific body fluids and tested the effectiveness of decontamination methodologies. MPXV decayed faster at higher temperatures, and rates varied considerably depending on the medium in which virus was suspended, both in solution and on surfaces. More proteinaceous fluids supported greater persistence. Chlorination was an effective decontamination technique, but only at higher concentrations. Wastewater was more difficult to decontaminate than plain deionized water; testing for infectious MPXV could be a helpful addition to PCR-based wastewater surveillance when high levels of viral DNA are detected. Our findings suggest that, because virus stability is sufficient to support environmental MPXV transmission in healthcare settings, exposure and dose-response will be limiting factors for those transmission routes.

La viruela de mono. ¿Una zoonosis emergente? / Monkeypox virus. An emergent zoonosis?

Resumen La viruela de mono es una enfermedad zoonótica propia de roedores y primates no humanos que producen casos esporádicos de monopox, el cual se caracteriza por lesiones exantemáticas en la piel. La viruela del mono es endémica en países del África Central y del Oeste, especialmente en la República Democrática del Congo. En 2003 se detectó por primera vez en el occidente y en el 2022 reaparece en Estados Unidos y otros países del mundo. Aunque cualquier persona que se exponga al virus puede desarrollar la enfermedad, este brote se ha caracterizado por presentar características epidemiológicas distintas ya que los grupos de riesgo más frecuente son los de los hombres que tienen sexo con hombres. Los nuevos brotes de esta enfermedad se han caracterizado por cambios importantes en la presentación clínica ya que el exantema no se presenta generalizado. Por el contrario, ha mostrado muchas variantes como la presentación de lesiones vesiculares únicas en la región genital, lo que hace difícil su diagnóstico clínico. Por ser una enfermedad emergente y presentar cambios en su comportamiento es importante estar consultando las recomendaciones de las organizaciones competentes para el manejo, tratamiento y diagnóstico de esta enfermedad.

Abstract Human monkeypox is a rare viral zoonosis endemic to central and western Africa. It was detected for the first time in the western Hemisphere in 2003. Recently it has re-emerged in USA and has spread rapidly to many countries of the world. Even though any person could contract the disease if expose to it, the populations most vulnerable to the infection are homosexuals, bisexuals and men that have sex with men. The virus produces an exanthem in the skin, which is clinically indistinguishable from other pox-like illnesses, particularly smallpox and chickenpox. Furthermore, clinical findings in recent studies have reported single vesicular lesions in the anogenital areas making the laboratory diagnosis an essential tool to be able to differentiate it from other venereal diseases. Since Human monkeypox is an emergent disease that presents very important epidemiological and clinical features, different from past outbreaks, it is recommended to be in constant communication with the competent health organizations and be aware of changes in case definitions, treatment and diagnostic procedures.

Recently Added Frameshift Mutation in Human Monkeypox Virus (hMPXV) OPG191 Gene.

Human monkeypox virus (hMPXV) has caused sporadic outbreaks intermittently across countries in recent years, with the largest outbreak in 2022. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. This study searched for recently developed structural variants of the viral genome. A total of 22 hMPXV whole genome sequences were randomly selected from the National Center for Biotechnology Information GenBank sequence database for initial screening. As a result, a recent frameshift mutation based on a 2-base insertion in a coding region was identified at the 3' terminal of the OPG191 gene, which encodes MPXVgp168 (B7R) protein. With this insertion, the protein was prematurely truncated, and the last 11 amino acids were missing, with 3 alternative amino acids added. Among the hMPXV genome sequences registered in the GenBank database as of January 2023, 61 sequences lacked the 2-base insertion and 3,362 sequences were inserted. All 61 sequences without mutations were collected before 2020, whereas 3,358 (99.9%) of the 3,362 sequences with the insertion were collected during or after 2022. These findings imply that a 2-base insertion has recently emerged and has been fixed among the virus population that prevailed in 2022. In summary, a recently emerged frameshift mutation with a 2-base insertion was identified in hMPXV OPG191 gene. Although the structural and functional consequences of this mutation on virulence and infectivity are unknown, research on the possible associations between this mutation and recent hMPXV outbreaks is warranted.

Current Status of Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Therapeutics, and Vaccines for the Re-Emerging Human Monkeypox Virus.

Monkeypox (Mpox) virus, a member of the Poxviridae family, causes a severe illness similar to smallpox, which is characterized by symptoms such as high fever, rash, and pustules. Human-to-human transmission cases have been reported but remained low since the first recorded case of human infection occurred in the Congo in 1970. Recently, Mpox has re-emerged, leading to an alarming surge in infections worldwide since 2022, originating in the United Kingdom. Consequently, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the '2022-23 Mpox outbreak'. Currently, no specific therapy or vaccine is available for Mpox. Therefore, patients infected with Mpox are treated using conventional therapies developed for smallpox. However, the vaccines developed for smallpox have demonstrated only partial efficacy against Mpox, allowing viral transmission among humans. In this review, we discuss the current epidemiology of the ongoing Mpox outbreak and provide an update on the progress made in diagnosis, treatment, and development of vaccines for Mpox.

Clinical Strategies and Therapeutics for Human Monkeypox Virus: A Revised Perspective on Recent Outbreaks.

An enveloped double-stranded DNA monkeypox virus (MPXV) is a causative agent of the zoonotic viral disease, human monkeypox (HMPX). MPXV belongs to the genus Orthopoxviridae, a family of notorious smallpox viruses, and so it shares similar clinical pathophysiological features. The recent multicountry HMPX outbreak (May 2022 onwards) is recognized as an emerging global public health emergency by the World Health Organization, shunting its endemic status as opined over the past few decades. Re-emergence of HMPX raises concern to reassess the present clinical strategy and therapeutics as its outbreak evolves further. Keeping a check on these developments, here we provide insights into the HMPX epidemiology, pathophysiology, and clinical representation. Weighing on its early prevention, we reviewed the strategies that are being enrolled for HMPX diagnosis. In the line of expanded MPXV prevalence, we further reviewed its clinical management and the diverse employed preventive/therapeutic strategies, including vaccines (JYNNEOS, ACAM2000, VIGIV) and antiviral drugs/inhibitors (Tecovirimat, Cidofovir, Brincidofovir). Taken together, with a revised perspective of HMPX re-emergence, the present report summarizes new knowledge on its prevalence, pathology, and prevention strategies.

A Few-shot learning approach for Monkeypox recognition from a cross-domain perspective.

Monkeypox is a zoonotic infectious skin disease initially endemic in Africa only. However, some countries are now beginning to report cases of apparent community transmission. In Computer Aided Diagnosis, deep learning has gained substantial improvement over traditional methods. Commonly, training a supervised deep model requires a large number of labeled samples. However, the collection and annotation of new disease images such as human monkeypox are time-consuming and expensive. Thus, we introduce a few-shot learning based approach for the recognition of human monkeypox in images. It requires merely a small number of training samples. In particular, it is a novel framework built with a normal backbone and auxiliary backbones. They are co-trained with Self-supervised Learning and Cross-domain Adaption techniques. The self-supervision penalty is used to help the auxiliary backbones effectively learn priors from source domain. The combined features across different domains are unified through a power transform layer. Extensive experiments are conducted on a task of recognizing chickenpox, measles, and human monkeypox diseases in a three-way few-shot manner. The results demonstrate that our method outperforms mainstream few-shot learning algorithms such as meta-learning based and fine-tuning based methods.

Impact of traveling on transmission trends of human monkeypox disease: worldwide data based observational analysis.

Background: Human monkeypox is an emerging viral zoonotic disease caused by a monkeypox virus (MPXV). This year since early May 2022, the virus swiftly spread involved 94 countries, and 41,358 people, and has developed a highly challenging and threatening situation worldwide. This study aimed to investigate the impact of traveling on the transmission of human monkeypox disease and comprehend the link between monkeypox exported cases in the context of the global outbreak. Methods: In this study, we identified data from two leading health organizations, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC), as well as 40 documents that were identified through the search engines Web of Science, Pub-Med, Medline, EMBASE, Scopus, and Google Scholar using the keywords "monkeypox," "human monkeypox," "imported"', "exportation" "travelers," and "prevalence." Finally, two international organizations WHO, and CDC, and out of 40 documents, 10 (25.0%) were included in the analysis, and the remaining 30 (75.0%) documents were excluded. The studies originated from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Singapore, Israel, the Republic of Korea, Taiwan, and India. The data on transmission trends and human monkeypox was recorded and analyzed. Results: The epidemiological data for exported monkeypox cases were analyzed jointly for understanding the transmission trends of exportations and the geographic context of the monkeypox outbreak. Ten people had a travel history, six had a travel history from Nigeria to the United Kingdom (2), Nigeria to the United States of America (2), Nigeria to Singapore (1) and Nigeria to Israel (1). Moreover, from Germany to Taiwan (1), Germany to the Republic of Korea (1) and the United Arab Emirates to India (2). Among these 10 people, all travelers were male (100%), with age ranges of 20-38 years, seven people (70%) developed clinical symptoms before the start of travel, three people (30%) developed symptoms 2-6 days after the travel, and one person (10%) developed clinical symptoms in the flight during the journey. Conclusion: The study findings conclude that traveling can cause the spread of human monkeypox disease in various countries. The findings support the hypothesis that virus sources can travel and spread the disease from person to person and from region to region. The international health authorities must implement global preventive policies to control the burden of the disease both at regional and international levels.

Challenges in the treatment and prevention of monkeypox infection; A comprehensive review.

Human monkeypox (HMPX) is a zoonotic disease, literally meaning that it can be passed on from animals (non-primate) to human (primate). All the reported and recorded cases have been traced back either to international travel or import of African animals. In the Unites states, sporadic monkeypox cases have been reported in specific over the past 50 years, starting its first identification in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (D.R.C.) in 1970. Due to its extreme versatility, this disease poses threat as a serious public health issue that needs to be monitored, researched and prevented. Data indicate that prior immunization with the smallpox vaccine is beneficial and may provide protection against the monkeypox virus. JYNNEOSTM is a live viral vaccine that has been approved to improve clinical manifestations of the infection. On the other hand, public ignorance about safety precaution towards monkeypox post-COVID is another challenge that needs to be overcome in tackling HMPX as a possible re-emergent infection. This review is a collation of the epidemiology, etiology, transmission, clinical features and treatment of human monkeypox (HMPX).

Socio-demographic determinants of the knowledge and attitude of Nepalese healthcare workers toward human monkeypox: a cross-sectional study.

Human monkeypox is an infectious zoonotic disease and since May 2022, there has been a spike in cases worldwide. In this regard, a global health emergency has been declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) on July 23rd, 2022. Although there have been no confirmed human monkeypox cases in Nepal yet, the nation is undeniably at risk of an outbreak. Despite all preventive efforts and preparedness for monkeypox, there still remain several challenges including the literacy and knowledge of our healthcare workers regarding monkeypox. The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge and attitude of Nepalese healthcare workers regarding monkeypox. A cross-sectional study was performed on different healthcare workers at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital on the month of October 2022 using a set of validated questionnaires used previously in a Saudi Arabian study. An in-person survey was conducted where a total of 220 questionnaires were distributed. The response rate was 93%. Knowledge was categorized into high or low based on the mean knowledge score. The attitude was assessed using a 3-point Likert scale. The association of the knowledge and attitude of the respondents in accordance with their socio-demographics was statistically evaluated using Pearson's Chi-square test. The mean knowledge score was 13. A larger proportion of the respondents (60.4%) demonstrated a high knowledge and 51.1% demonstrated a positive attitude. Studying monkeypox during medical education possessed a significant difference in the attitude (p = 0.025). Knowledge did not vary based on socio-demographic characteristics. Despite almost half a year into the monkeypox outbreak, Nepalese healthcare workers still have an unsatisfying degree of knowledge and a negative attitude regarding its control which shows the need for education and awareness.

Human Monkeypox Virus: Current State of Knowledge and Implications for the Imminent Days.

Monkeypox, a zoonotic orthopoxvirus, unintentionally infects humans and causes a condition resembling smallpox with noticeably reduced fatality. Despite the name monkeypox, the virus did not originate in monkeys. The virus has been linked to several rodents and small mammals, but the real source of monkeypox is still unknown. It was first noticed in macaque monkeys; hence it is named monkeypox. Although monkeypox transmission from person to person is extremely uncommon, it is frequently linked to respiratory droplets or close contact with mucocutaneous lesions of an infected person. This virus is indigenous to western and central Africa, with outbreaks in the Western Hemisphere linked to the exotic pet trade and international travel, making it clinically significant. The immunization against vaccinia virus provided coincidental immunity to monkeypox, but the eradication of smallpox and the consequent lack of vaccination campaigns allowed monkeypox to become clinically relevant. Even though the smallpox vaccine offers protection against the monkeypox virus, the incidence is increasing because of newly non-immunized generations. There is currently no designated treatment for infected individuals; however, supportive treatments are used to relieve symptoms. In extremely severe cases, medications such as tecovirimat may be effective and are used in Europe. Because there are no precise recommendations for symptom alleviation, many treatments are on trial. Smallpox immunizations like JYNNEOS and ACAM2000 are also used as prophylactic measures in the case of the monkeypox virus. This article describes the assessment and treatment of monkeypox infections in humans and emphasizes the need for a multidisciplinary team to treat patients with this condition and prevent disease outbreaks.

Hotel employees' knowledge of monkeypox's source, symptoms, transmission, prevention, and treatment in Egypt.

BACKGROUND: The re-emerging human monkeypox virus (MPXV) poses a global threat. The rising number of confirmed MPXV cases worldwide is a significant reason for concern. This study aims to investigate (1) hotel employees' knowledge in Egypt of MPXV source, signs/symptoms, transmission, prevention, and treatment, (2) the primary sources of their information about MPXV, (3) whether or not they received information about MPXV from their hotels, and (4) the differences of employees' knowledge in terms of gender, age, marital status, level of education, type of contract, professional category, hotel department, type of hotel, seniority in the hotel, and the number of hotel rooms. METHODS: Using a quantitative approach, we collected data from 453 employees in Egyptian hotels via a web-based questionnaire. The survey included questions regarding the MPXV source, signs/symptoms, transmission, prevention, and treatment, as well as its primary information sources. The questionnaire also included questions regarding participants' demographics and hotel characteristics. RESULTS: The findings indicated that more than half of hotel employees have inadequate knowledge of MPXV. Additionally, the majority of employees selected social media as their primary source of MPXV-related information. Surprisingly, most participants reported that their hotels neglected to provide them with the MPXV's information. Age, marital status, education, professional category, and tenure in the hotel all have a significant impact on their MPXV knowledge level. CONCLUSION: The current paper presents significant implications for both theory and practice. This study provides government agencies and hotels with guidelines for preventing the outbreak of MPXV. According to our knowledge, this is the first study conducted with hotel employees in the MPXV Egyptian context.

Demographic, clinical and microbiological characteristics of the first 30 human monkeypox confirmed cases attended in a tertiary hospital in Madrid (Spain), during the May-June 2022 international outbreak / Características demográficas, clínicas y microbiológicas de los primeros 30 casos humanos confirmados de viruela del mono atendidos en un hospital terciario de Madrid (España), durante el brote internacional de mayo-junio de 2022

The present outbreak of Human Monkeypox (HMPX) that has begun in May 2022 and has spread across all continents in less than two months has qualitative and quantitative characteristics that make it different from the pattern of human disease previously caused by this virus. It has spread with enormous ease, affects almost exclusively adults, behaves as a sexually transmitted disease and focuses on very specific groups and transmission conditions. The high incidence in the city of Madrid in males that have sex with males (MSM) has allowed us to observe and report the experience with the first 30 cases diagnosed in our institution. Patients presented with febrile symptoms, genital and paragenital skin lesions reminiscent of smallpox, but less extensive and severe. The disease may also cause proctitis, pharyngitis and perioral lesions. The PCR test for diagnostic confirmation has been shown to be very sensitive and effective, not only in skin lesions but also in blood and other fluids such as pharyngeal, rectal exudates and blood. A very high proportion of patients with HMPX also have other sexually transmitted diseases that must be actively detected in this context. The spontaneous evolution of our patients has been good and hospitalization has been practically unnecessary. Transmission to non-sexual cohabitants and health personnel has been nonexistent and the lesions have disappeared in less than 30 days without leaving sequelae and no need for specific antiviral treatment. (AU)

El actual brote de la enfermedad por el virus de la viruela del mono humana (HMPX), que ha comenzado en mayo de 2022 y se ha extendido por todos los continentes en menos de dos meses, tiene unas características cualitativas y cuantitativas que lo diferencian del patrón de enfermedad humana causado anteriormente por este virus. Se ha extendido con enorme facilidad, afecta casi exclusivamente a adultos, se comporta como una enfermedad de transmisión sexual y se centra en grupos y condiciones de transmisión muy específicas. La alta incidencia en la ciudad de Madrid en varones que tienen sexo con varones (HSH) nos ha permitido observar y comunicar la experiencia con los primeros 30 casos diagnosticados en nuestra institución. Los pacientes se presentaron con síntomas febriles, lesiones cutáneas genitales y paragenitales que recuerdan a la viruela, pero menos extensas y graves. La enfermedad también puede causar proctitis, faringitis y lesiones periorales. La prueba PCR para la confirmación del diagnóstico ha demostrado ser muy sensible y eficaz, no sólo en las lesiones cutáneas sino también en la sangre y otros fluidos como los exudados faríngeos y rectales y la sangre. Una proporción muy elevada de pacientes con HMPX presentan también otras enfermedades de transmisión sexual que deben ser detectadas activamente en este contexto. La evolución espontánea de nuestros pacientes ha sido buena y la hospitalización ha sido prácticamente innecesaria. La transmisión a convivientes no sexuales y al personal sanitario ha sido inexistente y las lesiones han desaparecido en menos de 30 días sin dejar secuelas y sin necesidad de tratamiento antiviral específico. (AU)

The study of human monkeypox disease in 2022 using the epidemic models: herd immunity and the basic reproduction number case.

As of May 2022, a new outbreak of the human monkeypox (MPOX) disease appeared in multiple countries, where the 2022 human MPOX disease spread to more than 109 cases, excluding the suspected cases up to the end of 2022. The deaths of the 2022 human MPOX exceeded 200 cases up to the same date. The human MPOX is not a new disease, this disease was once endemic in some countries on the African continent. Despite this, this disease began to spread in a number of countries around the world in 2022. The first case of the 2022 human MPOX was recorded in the United Kingdom in May. After that date, this disease began to become a pandemic in a number of other countries, such as the United States, Spain, and Brazil. The 2022 human MPOX is a type of viral disease caused by a viral virus, the MPOX virus, and this virus causes rashes and lesions over the skin of the patient, as well as in the mouth of the patient. Multiple effective indicators are employed for the study of the 2022 of the human MPOX, such as the herd immunity of the human MPOX (HIhMPOX), the basic reproduction number of the human MPOX (BRNhMPOX), and the infection period of the human MPOX. This study focuses on the study of the herd immunity of, and the basic reproduction number of the 2022 outbreak of human MPOX in multiple countries around the world. This study employed the semianalytical method of the Susceptible compartment S, Infectious compartment I, Recovered compartment R (SIR) pandemic model including the mortality for the study of the herd immunity, and the basic reproduction number of the 2022 human MPOX disease. It is found that the average value of the herd immunity for the human MPOX disease in 2022 equals to 0.2194, that is, 21.94% for multiple countries, and equals to 35.52% for the United States, and 30.99% for Spain. Also, it is found that the average value of the basic reproduction number of the 2022 human MPOX disease equals to 1.2810 for multiple countries. It is concluded from these values that 21.94% of the total susceptible population has to be immunized in an effective way to prevent the spreading of the disease. Also, based on the previous values, it is concluded that the status of the 2022 MPOX disease is spreading as a pandemic.

Monkeypox Vaccine Acceptance among Ghanaians: A Call for Action.

Background: Ghana ranked 31st worldwide and 3rd in Africa in the number of confirmed cases worldwide. We aimed to assess the intention to receive the monkeypox (MPOX) vaccine and its associated psychological antecedents among the Ghanaian population. Methods: A cross-sectional online survey was conducted in Ghana from November to December 2022. Snowball sampling was used to recruit participants via social media platforms, such as WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Telegram, and Facebook. The validated 5C scale was used to assess five psychological factors that influence vaccination behavior and intent: confidence, complacency, constraints, calculation, and collective responsibility. Results: The study drew 605 participants; their mean age was 30.0 ± 6.8; 68.1% were single; 60.8 % were males, and 51.9% were living in Greater Accra (The capital and largest city of Ghana). About 53.9% of the studied Ghanaian population did not intend to receive the MPOX vaccination. Vaccine acceptance among non-healthcare workers (non-HCWs) was significantly lower than among HCWs (41.7 vs. 55.3, p < 0.001). The determinants of vaccine acceptance were male gender (AOR = 1.48, 95% CI, 1.00-2.18, p = 0.049), urban residence (AOR = 0.63, 95% CI, 0.41-0.96, p = 0.033), refusal of coronavirus 2019 vaccine (AOR = 0.29, 95% CI, 0.16-0.52, p < 0.001), confidence in vaccination ((AOR = 2.45, 95% CI, 1.93-3.15, and p < 0.001), and collective responsibility (AOR = 1.34, 95% CI, 1.02-1.75, p = 0.034)). Conclusions: The participants in this study did not show high levels of intention to accept the MPOX vaccination. Consequently, tailoring the efforts aiming to promote MPOX vaccination is needed especially among non-HCWs through increasing their confidence in vaccine effectiveness and safety and promoting the importance of self-vaccination to protect others.

Ocular MPox: A report of two cases.

We report two cases of ocular MPox in men living with HIV, and review the clinical manifestations, diagnosis, and treatment of this rare syndrome. Our cases highlight the need for early recognition and prompt treatment for this potentially sight threatening infection.

Epidemiologic characteristics and clinical features of patients with monkeypox virus infection from a hospital in Peru between July and September 2022.

OBJECTIVES: Monkeypox (Mpox) recent outbreak has changed in terms of predominant transmission route and typical presentation. Describing current epidemiological and clinical characteristics is crucial to identifying cases and halting transmission. METHODS: An observational study was conducted at a Peruvian tertiary-level hospital and included all individuals with Mpox virus infection between July 01 and September 03, 2022. RESULTS: Among 205 confirmed cases, 99% (202/205) were men, 94% (192/205) were men who have sex with men or bisexual, and 66% (136/205) were living with HIV. Regarding sexual behavior, 87% (179/205) had a sexual encounter 21 days before consultation, although only 8% (17/205) identified sexual contact with a Mpox confirmed case; 65% (133/205) had sexual intercourse with casual partners, 55% (112/205) reported a last sexual partner unknown, and 21.5% (44/205) continued having sexual intercourse with symptoms. Systemic symptoms were fever (162/205, 79%), malaise (123/205, 60%), headache (119/205, 58%), fatigue (105/205, 52%), and lymphadenopathy (111/205, 54%). The distribution of skin lesions was generalized (166/205, 81%), located in the anogenital area (160/205, 78%), polymorphic (174/205, 85%), and it was the first symptom identified in 46% (94/205) of cases. Overall, 10% (21/205) required hospitalization, of whom 85.7% (18/205) have HIV infection. Complications included bacterial superinfection (n = 18), proctitis (n = 6), balanitis (n = 4), and necrosis of skin lesions (n = 3). CONCLUSION: In 2022, Mpox mainly affects men who have sex with men and People living with HIV/AIDS. It presents with skin lesions localized to the anogenital area and can lead to severe complications requiring hospitalization.