A systematic nomenclature for mpox viruses causing outbreaks with sustained human-to-human transmission

Christopher Ruis^{1

2

3

4}, Eddy Lusamaki^{5

6

7}, Aine O'Toole⁸, James R Otieno¹, Rachel Colquhoun⁸, Cornelius Roemer⁹, Tony Wawina-Bokalanga^{5

7

10}, Olivier Tshiani-Mbaya^{5

7

11}, Daan Jansen¹⁰, Jean-Claude Makangara^{5

7

12}, Anurag Agrawal¹³, Laith Jamal Abu-Raddad¹⁴, Steve Ahuka-Mundeke^{5

7}, Ahidjo Ayouba⁶, Esam I Azhar¹⁵, Leon Caly¹⁶, Christian Drosten¹⁷, Nuno R Faria^{18

19}, Adeola Fowotade²⁰, Ana Hoxha¹, Baoying Huang²¹, Bette Korber²², Olivier le Polain de Waroux¹, Rosamund F Lewis¹, Laurens Liesenborghs^{10

23}, Nada M Melhem²⁴, Vincent J Munster²⁵, Dimie Ogoina²⁶, Bas B Oude Munnink²⁷, Joseph Sriyal Malik Peiris²⁸, Gustavo Palacios²⁹, Martine Peeters⁶, Paola Resende³⁰, Anne W Rimoin³¹, Senjuti Saha³², Yee-Sin Leo^{33

34}, Tadaki Suzuki³⁵, Koen Vercauteren¹⁰, Pragya Yadav³⁶, Maria D Van Kerkhove¹, Richard Neher⁹, Tulio de Oliveira³⁷, David Ulaeto³⁸, Placide Mbala-Kingebeni^{5

7}, Jason Kindrachuk³⁹, Marion P G Koopmans²⁷, Meera Chand⁴⁰, Anne von Gottberg^{41

42}, Lorenzo Subissi⁴³, Andrew Rambaut⁴⁴

Affiliations

¹ Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
² Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
³ Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁴ Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁵ Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB), Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
⁶ TransVIHMI, Université de Montpellier, INSERM, IRD, Montpellier, France.
⁷ Service de microbiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
⁸ Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
⁹ University of Basel and SIB, Basel, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Department of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
¹¹ Clinical Monitoring Research Program Directorate, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, USA.
¹² Graduate School of Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
¹³ Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University, Sonipat, India.
¹⁴ Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar of Cornell University, Doha, Qatar.
¹⁵ Special Infectious Agents Unit - BSL3, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁶ Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
¹⁷ Charité Medical Center, Berlin, Germany.
¹⁸ School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.
¹⁹ Institute of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
²⁰ College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
²¹ National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
²² Los Alamos National Laboratory, The New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
²³ Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
²⁴ Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
²⁵ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
²⁶ Bayelsa Medical University, Yenagoa, Nigeria.
²⁷ Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
²⁸ School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China.
²⁹ Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
³⁰ Laboratory of Respiratory Viruses, Exanthematics, Enteroviruses and Viral Emergencies (LVRE), Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
³¹ Department of Epidemiology, Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³² Child Health Research Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
³³ National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore, Singapore.
³⁴ Lee Kong Chien School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
³⁵ Department of Infectious Disease Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan Institute for Health Security, Tokyo, Japan.
³⁶ National Institute of Virology, Indian Council of Medical Research, Pune, India.
³⁷ Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
³⁸ Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Salisbury, UK.
³⁹ Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
⁴⁰ UK Health Security Agency, London, UK.
⁴¹ National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa.
⁴² School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
⁴³ Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. subissil@who.int.
⁴⁴ Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. a.rambaut@ed.ac.uk.

PMID: 40731088
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-025-03820-6

A systematic nomenclature for mpox viruses causing outbreaks with sustained human-to-human transmission

Christopher Ruis et al. Nat Med. 2025 Sep.

. 2025 Sep;31(9):2854-2858.

doi: 10.1038/s41591-025-03820-6.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.
² Victor Phillip Dahdaleh Heart and Lung Research Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
³ Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁴ Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
⁵ Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale (INRB), Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
⁶ TransVIHMI, Université de Montpellier, INSERM, IRD, Montpellier, France.
⁷ Service de microbiologie, Faculté de Médecine, Université de Kinshasa, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
⁸ Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
⁹ University of Basel and SIB, Basel, Switzerland.
¹⁰ Department of Clinical Sciences, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
¹¹ Clinical Monitoring Research Program Directorate, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, USA.
¹² Graduate School of Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
¹³ Trivedi School of Biosciences, Ashoka University, Sonipat, India.
¹⁴ Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar of Cornell University, Doha, Qatar.
¹⁵ Special Infectious Agents Unit - BSL3, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁶ Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
¹⁷ Charité Medical Center, Berlin, Germany.
¹⁸ School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.
¹⁹ Institute of Tropical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil.
²⁰ College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
²¹ National Institute for Viral Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
²² Los Alamos National Laboratory, The New Mexico Consortium, Los Alamos, NM, USA.
²³ Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Transplantation, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
²⁴ Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon.
²⁵ National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
²⁶ Bayelsa Medical University, Yenagoa, Nigeria.
²⁷ Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
²⁸ School of Public Health, LKS Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, People's Republic of China.
²⁹ Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
³⁰ Laboratory of Respiratory Viruses, Exanthematics, Enteroviruses and Viral Emergencies (LVRE), Oswaldo Cruz Institute, Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
³¹ Department of Epidemiology, Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
³² Child Health Research Foundation, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
³³ National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Singapore, Singapore.
³⁴ Lee Kong Chien School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore.
³⁵ Department of Infectious Disease Pathology, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan Institute for Health Security, Tokyo, Japan.
³⁶ National Institute of Virology, Indian Council of Medical Research, Pune, India.
³⁷ Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa.
³⁸ Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Salisbury, UK.
³⁹ Department of Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, Max Rady College of Medicine, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
⁴⁰ UK Health Security Agency, London, UK.
⁴¹ National Institute for Communicable Diseases of the National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa.
⁴² School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
⁴³ Health Emergencies Programme, World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland. subissil@who.int.
⁴⁴ Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK. a.rambaut@ed.ac.uk.

PMID: 40731088
DOI: 10.1038/s41591-025-03820-6

No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

References

1. Kinganda-Lusamaki, E. et al. Cell 188, 4–14.e6 (2024). - DOI - PubMed
1. Nolen, L. D. et al. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 22, 1014–1021 (2016). - DOI - PubMed - PMC
1. Beiras, C. G. et al. Lancet 405, 86–96 (2025). - DOI - PubMed
1. O’Toole, Á. et al. Science 382, 595–600 (2023). - DOI - PubMed - PMC
1. Yinka-Ogunleye, A. et al. Emerg. Infect. Dis. 24, 1149–1151 (2018). - DOI - PubMed - PMC

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A systematic nomenclature for mpox viruses causing outbreaks with sustained human-to-human transmission

Affiliations

A systematic nomenclature for mpox viruses causing outbreaks with sustained human-to-human transmission

Authors

Affiliations

Conflict of interest statement

References

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources