Molecular Evidence of Human Monkeypox Virus Infection, Sierra Leone

Abstract

Monkeypox virus is a zoonotic disease endemic to Africa. In 2017, we confirmed a case of human monkeypox virus in Sierra Leone by molecular and serologic methods. Sequencing analysis indicated the virus belongs to the West African clade and data suggest it was likely transmitted by wild animals.

Keywords: Sierra Leone; molecular signature; monkeypox virus; sequence; viruses; zoonotic disease,.

Figure

Phylogenetic analysis and molecular signatures of monkeypox virus (MPXV) Sierra Leone 2017 and other collected MPXV isolates. A) Schematic representation of the MPXV Sierra Leone 2017 genomic fragment by reference to genomic data on MPXV Sierra Leone 1970. MPXV Sierra Leone 2017 contains 3 parts: an unknown region, genes encoding dUTPase, and genes encoding partial kelch-like protein. *, binding position of primers used for real-time PCR detection. Bottom panel displays genes described. Arrows indicate direction of transcription. B) Phylogenetic relationships between genomic fragments of MPXV collected in Sierra Leone and other orthopoxviruses. Neighbor-joining phylograms constructed by using MEGA6 (https://www.megasoftware.net) and the maximum-likelihood method. Scale bar indicates nucleotide substitutions per site.