NewsDesk @bactiman63

The National Reference Laboratory (NRL) for Influenza and Non-Influenza Respiratory Viral Diseases has already validated the first two samples by PCR, which have so far been considered preliminarily positive for smallpox. New examinations then revealed three more infected patients. Thus, we have a total of five confirmed cases of monkeypox in the Czech Republic. In all cases, the laboratory confirmed that it was monkeypox belonging to the West African clade virus (Monkeypoxvirus West African clade).

Czech Republic
Czech Republic
Image/CIA

Two new infections were confirmed by examination on an electron microscope and verification by the PCR method, and in one other sample a positive finding is only on the electron microscope, without the possibility of confirmation by the PCR method, due to lack of material. However, this is a patient who has been in contact with an already confirmed case and with identical clinical manifestations. We therefore consider the sample to be definitively confirmed.

Two newly positive samples are from patients of the Central Military Hospital, one was sent for examination by the Bulovka University Hospital. In all five known cases, it is a milder variant of the virus belonging to the West African group of viruses, where a mortality rate of 1% is reported. This was confirmed by PCR diagnostics.

In the case of monkeypox, there is a second group of viruses, the so-called Congo basin clade. However, it has not been detected in patients in Europe or other countries. Tests did not reveal it in the Czech Republic either. In connection with this option, approximately 1,000 cases are registered in the Congo each year. Both variants of the monkeypox virus endemically occur in the zoonotic reservoir represented by rodents and primates in western and central sub-Saharan Africa.