The health authorities of Peru identified the first South American lineage of the virus what cause monkey poxwhich has been appointed B.1.6 by the International Scientific Committee “mpxv-lineages”, reported an official statement on Wednesday.
“This B.1.6 lineage corresponds to the first new and original lineage identified in the South American region, and is characterized by the nucleotide mutation G111029A, whose impact on the behavior of the virus is still under study,” said the Ministry of Health (Minsa).
The identification of this lineage of the virus was carried out by researchers from the Genomic Surveillance Team of the National Institute of Health (INS), which have sequenced 160 complete genomes, 122 of which correspond to the B.1.6 lineage, which come from Lima.
The Minsa added that the INS investigators observed that the lineage B.1.6 it is not the only one present in the country, since so far “more than ten independent introductions” of the virus have been identified in the national territory.
He assured that, with global spread of monkeypox“new viral lineages emerge in various parts of the world that have been called B.1.1 to B.1.8.”
“There are circulating lineages in some regions such as La Libertad and Arequipa that are still under investigation, which are different from B.1.6, predominant in Lima,” the official information remarked.
The Minsa also highlighted that Peru is contributing 11% of the monkeypox genomes sequenced globally, which “reflects the great effort made to generate information aimed at understanding the epidemiological dynamics” in the Andean country.
After adding 1,463 infections nationwide, the Minsa confirmed this Tuesday the first case of an 8-year-old boy with monkeypox and specified that his state of health is “stable” and “he receives the necessary care as well as his family”.
Till the date, Peru has 651 cases of smallpox of the monkey in follow-up and 812 medical discharges, reported in 16 of the 25 regions of the country.
The ministry also reported that last Saturday a 35-year-old patient died of unspecified bacterial pneumonia, who had undergone surgery for intestinal obstruction and was also diagnosed with monkeypox on August 15.