It has now been several weeks since cases of monkey pox have been detected in several countries around the world. The WHO has listed, so far, 250 cases of infection with this virus, in 16 non-endemic countries, that is to say where it is not usually present. Belgium is one of these States, and Sciensano reports six cases of monkeypox with us, and a potential seventh. The first four infections concern men who participated in the Darklands fetish festival in Antwerp, while the other two contaminations affect a person infected by his companion and a Belgian who traveled to Portugal.
The virology laboratories of our country are therefore analyzing the virus to determine how to fight against it. The teams from the Rega Institute at KU Leuven in particular, where Marc Van Ranst works, have looked into it. And they made a first discovery, reports Het Laatste Nieuws. The Flemish virologist’s laboratory sequenced the monkeypox virus contained in positive samples and found that it contained “a handful of mutations”.
For the moment, researchers do not yet know the impact of these mutations on the infectivity of the virus. But Marc Van Ranst said recently that the bacterium was “being humanized” and that virologists “prefer not to see that”.