Researchers at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, ITG, in Antwerp have found an explanation for the rapid spread of the mpox virus, formerly known as the monkey pox virus.
After examining samples from high-risk contacts, the ITG concludes that persons infected with the virus may be able to transmit it even before they have symptoms. “High-risk contacts are already infectious four days before symptoms appear,” the ITG found.
“This is an important explanation for the spread of the virus,” it said.
In Belgium and the rest of Europe, however, the mpox epidemic is declining.
“Since the first case in May, we learned that the mpox virus can be contagious even without symptoms,” says Koen Vercauteren, clinical virologist at the ITG. “Now we have also shown that a potentially transmissible virus can be present in infected individuals even before the onset of symptoms.”
The ITG research team examined twenty-five high-risk contacts. Sexual partners and roommates of infected persons took daily samples that the laboratory examined. The participants also kept a diary and were closely monitored by physicians.
“The results of the PCR tests show that participants were potentially infectious sometimes as early as four days before they tested positive,” Vercauteren said. “The risk of infection through sexual contact is also much higher than we previously assumed."
"In contrast, the risk of non-sexual contact is very low. And although skin lesions are a characteristic symptom, they are less common than we assumed,” the virologist added.
