A new variant of human mpox has claimed the lives of approximately 5% of people with reported infections in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 2023, many of them children. Since then, it has spread to several other countries. The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on August 14.
In addition, a different but rarely fatal mpox variant was responsible for an outbreak that has spread to more than 100 countries since 2022. There is an urgent need for faster and more cost-effective diagnostic tools to curb the spread of mpox and to prepare for the possibility of a future global pandemic. Researchers from University of California School of Medicine, Boston University, and their colleagues have now developed an optical biosensor that can rapidly detect monkeypox, the virus that causes mpox.
The technology could allow clinicians to diagnose the disease at the point of care rather than wait for lab results . The team's study is published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics . In the clinic, mpox symptoms such as fever, pain, rashes and lesions resemble those of many other viral infections, said Partha Ray, an associate project scientist at UC San Diego School of Medicine and co-principal investigator on the study.
"So just by looking at the patient, it is not easy for clinicians to distinguish monkeypox from these other diseases." What's more, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is currently the only approved method of diag.
