The state’s department of health, the CDPH, said the new case was from the Clade I strain – different from the Clade II strain that has been in circulation in the US since 2022.

The person in question, who is now isolating at home, had recently travelled to Africa and the CDPH said their case was “related to the ongoing outbreak of Clade I mpox in Central and Eastern Africa”.

Mpox was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization earlier this year.

The CDPH said that while Clade I cases had tended to cause more severe illness than Clade II in the past, “recent infections from Clade I mpox may not be as clinically severe as in previous outbreaks”.

Mpox is caused by a virus in the same family as smallpox but is usually much less harmful.

It was originally transmitted from animals to humans but now also passes between humans.

Initial symptoms include fever, headaches, swellings, back pain and aching muscles. A rash can then develop, which can be extremely itchy or painful.

The infection can clear up on its own and lasts between 14 and 21 days, but in some cases has been fatal, particularly for vulnerable groups including small children.

Mpox is most common in remote villages in the tropical rainforests of West and Central Africa, in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo), where it has been seen for many years.

Hundreds of people died during an initial outbreak in DR Congo earlier this year, and the disease has since spread to areas of Central and East Africa.

Outbreaks can be controlled by preventing infections with vaccines, though these are usually only available for people at risk or those who have been in close contact with an infected person.

The post US reports first case of emerging mpox strain appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Much of what we know about viral respiratory infections like COVID-19 and influenza comes from studies of symptomatic patients. Now, a new longitudinal study by Columbia University researchers of symptomatic, asymptomatic, and mild infections sheds light on how our bodies respond to these infections on a molecular level. They report the discovery of a gene expression signature capable of differentiating both between symptomatic and asymptomatic infections and between positive asymptomatic individuals and negative individuals.

The study presents a complex picture of how several common respiratory viruses interact with the human body, and with each other, as well as with common respiratory bacteria. The results are available as an interactive web tool(link is external and opens in a new window) for scientists to generate and test new hypotheses, and are described in a new peer-reviewed article in the journal PLOS Biology.(link is external and opens in a new window)

Over 19 months, 214 volunteers enrolled in the Virome of Manhattan study provided nasal swab samples, which were analyzed by molecular testing (RNA-seq and qPCR) along with daily individual reports of symptoms and demographic information. The majority of the infections were caused by rhinoviruses and coronaviruses. Only 8 percent of positive samples contained evidence of multiple viral coinfections (one case was positive for five different viruses). The study found that influenza leads to greater changes in gene expression than other viruses, such as coronavirus or rhinovirus. Their findings were also suggestive of a possible link between repeat exposure to pathogens and host responses.

“The repeated emergences of influenza and coronavirus pandemic outbreaks have emphasized the need for a better understanding of host-pathogen interactions in respiratory infections,” says study co-first author Marta Galanti, PhD, an associate research scientist in environmental health sciences at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

“Identifying the main biological pathways by which viruses interact with our bodies is key for developing therapeutic tools, such as antivirals or vaccines, as well as for better identifying individuals at risk, both for seasonal respiratory viruses and emerging pandemic threats,” says study co-senior author Jeffrey Shaman, PhD, professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia Mailman and Interim Dean of the Columbia Climate School.  

An earlier study using data from the same cohort found that reinfections with endemic coronaviruses are not uncommon, even within a year of prior infection. The study found that when reinfection occurred, it was not associated with less severe symptoms. Instead, genetic factors may be a greater determinant of the severity of an infection.

Study co-authors include Haruka Morita, Mariam Youssef, Devon Comito, Chanel Ligon, Benjamin Lane, Nelsa Matienzo, Sadiat Ibrahim, Eudosie Tagne, and Atinuke Shittu of Columbia Mailman; and Juan Angel Patiño-Galindo (co-first author), Ioan Filip (co-first author), Angelica Galianese, Oliver Elliott, Tomin Perea-Chamblee, Sanjay Natesan, Daniel Scholes Rosenbloom, and Raul Rabadan (co-senior author)^. of the Department of Systems Biology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

The study was supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (contracts W911NF-16-2-0035, R01GM117591).

The authors have the following competing interests: Rabadan is a member of the SAB of Diatech Pharmacogenetics and Flahy and a founder of Genotwin. Shaman and Columbia University disclose partial ownership of SK Analytics. Shaman discloses consulting for BNI.  Rosenbloom is now an employee of Merck & Co. and may hold stock. Filip is now employee of Illumina. Elliott is currently an employee of Genowin. All other authors have no competing interests.

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The post Study Sheds Light on How Viral Infections Interact with Our Bodies appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.