比利时热带医学研究所Marjan Van Esbroeck，Koen Vercauteren，Christophe Van Dijck和Irith De Baetselier共同合作近期取得重要工作进展。他们报道了比利时男性性健康诊所就诊患者中无症状猴痘病毒感染的回顾性检测。相关研究成果2022年8月12日在线发表于《自然—医学》杂志上。

研究团队的目的是评估2022年5月在比利时性健康诊所就诊的男性中是否发生了未确诊的感染。研究人员使用猴痘病毒（MPXV）PCR分析法对收集的224份淋病和衣原体检测样本进行了回顾性筛查，并从四个样本中鉴定出MPXV DNA阳性样本。在取样时，一名男子出现疼痛性皮疹，三名男子报告没有任何症状。在21至37天后进行临床检查时，这三名男性没有临床症状，他们报告也没有出现任何症状。血清学证实所有三名男性均接触过MPXV，并从两例病例中培养出MPXV。这些发现表明，某些猴痘病例仍未得到诊断，并表明对报告症状的个人进行检测和隔离可能不足以控制疫情。

据介绍，2022年多国猴痘病毒疫情的规模超过了以往任何一次疫情。目前尚不清楚无症状感染或其他未诊断感染是否助长了这场流行病。

附：英文原文

Title: Retrospective detection of asymptomatic monkeypox virus infections among male sexual health clinic attendees in Belgium

Author: De Baetselier, Irith, Van Dijck, Christophe, Kenyon, Chris, Coppens, Jasmine, Michiels, Johan, de Block, Tessa, Smet, Hilde, Coppens, Sandra, Vanroye, Fien, Bugert, Joachim Jakob, Girl, Philipp, Zange, Sabine, Liesenborghs, Laurens, Brosius, Isabel, van Griensven, Johan, Selhorst, Philippe, Florence, Eric, Van den Bossche, Dorien, Arin, Kevin K., Rezende, Antonio Mauro, Vercauteren, Koen, Van Esbroeck, Marjan

Issue&Volume: 2022-08-12

Abstract: The magnitude of the 2022 multi-country monkeypox virus outbreak has surpassed any preceding outbreak. It is unclear whether asymptomatic or otherwise undiagnosed infections are fuelling this epidemic. We aimed to assess whether undiagnosed infections occurred among men attending a Belgian sexual health clinic in May 2022. We retrospectively screened 224 samples collected for gonorrhoea and chlamydia testing using a monkeypox virus (MPXV) PCR assay, and identified MPXV DNA-positive samples from four men. At the time of sampling, one man had a painful rash, and three men had reported no symptoms. Upon clinical examination 21 to 37 days later, these three men were free of clinical signs and they reported not having experienced any symptoms. Serology confirmed MPXV exposure in all three men, and MPXV was cultured from two cases. These findings show that certain cases of monkeypox remain undiagnosed, and suggest that testing and quarantining of individuals reporting symptoms may not suffice to contain the outbreak.

DOI: 10.1038/s41591-022-02004-w

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-022-02004-w