Genetic sequencing of monkeypox outbreak highlights need for local surveillance, researchers find

A monkeypox outbreak in Nigeria probably originated from within the country recently highlighted the need for local surveillance and advanced genetic characterizations to help pinpoint the origins of outbreaks, a team of multinational researchers said.

From Sept. 4 to Dec. 9, 61 cases of monkeypox were confirmed in Nigeria, resulting in one death. The virus was identified there in 1958, but only 10 cases had been confirmed in the region between 1971 and 1978.

“Based on our findings, it appears that the index case of the current outbreak in Nigeria was not imported, but probably originated from a spillover event or events involving reservoir hosts,” Gustavo Palacios, head of the Center for Genome Sciences at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease, said.

A multinational team of researchers supported the effort. The Institut Pasteur in Dakar (IPD) used sequencing equipment provided by the Targeted Acquisition of Reference Materials Augmenting Capabilities (TARMAC) initiative and the Defense Biological Product Assurance Office (DBPAO).

The sequencing equipment enabled sped up response time. It took less than two months for IPD to generate testing results that could be used by public health officials to help control the outbreak, Bruce Goodwin, director of the DBPAO, said.