Eurosurv. Monkeypox DNA levels correlate with virus infectivity in clinical samples, Israel, 2022

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• Nir Paran[SUP]1,*[/SUP] , Yfat Yahalom-Ronen[SUP]1,*[/SUP] , Ohad Shifman[SUP]2[/SUP] , Shirley Lazar[SUP]2[/SUP] , Ronen Ben-Ami[SUP]3,10[/SUP] , Michal Yakubovsky[SUP]3[/SUP] , Itzchak Levy[SUP]4,10[/SUP] , Anat Wieder-Feinsod[SUP]4,10[/SUP] , Sharon Amit[SUP]5[/SUP] , Michal Katzir[SUP]6,10[/SUP] , Noga Carmi-Oren[SUP]7[/SUP] , Ariela Levcovich[SUP]7[/SUP] , Mirit Hershman-Sarafov[SUP]8,11[/SUP] , Alona Paz[SUP]8,11[/SUP] , Rebecca Thomas[SUP]9[/SUP] , Hadas Tamir[SUP]1[/SUP] , Lilach Cherry-Mimran[SUP]1[/SUP] , Noam Erez[SUP]1[/SUP] , Sharon Melamed[SUP]1[/SUP] , Moria Barlev-Gross[SUP]1[/SUP] , Shay Karmi[SUP]1[/SUP] , Boaz Politi[SUP]1[/SUP] , Hagit Achdout[SUP]1[/SUP] , Shay Weiss[SUP]1[/SUP] , Haim Levy[SUP]1[/SUP] , Ofir Schuster[SUP]1[/SUP] , Adi Beth-Din[SUP]2[/SUP] , Tomer Israely[SUP]1[/SUP]

The current monkeypox virus global spread and lack of data regarding clinical specimens’ infectivity call for examining virus infectivity, and whether this correlates with results from PCR, the available diagnostic tool. We show strong correlation between viral DNA amount in clinical specimens and virus infectivity toward BSC-1 cell line. Moreover, we define a PCR threshold value (Cq ≥ 35, ≤ 4,300 DNA copies/mL), corresponding to negative viral cultures, which may assist risk-assessment and decision-making regarding protective-measures and guidelines for patients with monkeypox.




https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.35.2200636#html_fulltext