Emmanuel Alakunle, the valedictorian of AUN's class of 2022, AUN Alum Daniel Kolawole, and Dr. Malachy Okeke collaborated with other international researchers to publish an article on the Monkeypox virus (MPXV) and its disease.
Despite the virus emerging over five decades, little is known about its virological profile and the characteristics of the disease it causes. The paper, "A comprehensive review of monkeypox virus and monkeypox characteristics," was published in Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology (JCR IF 5.7, Scopus Cite Score 6.4). Emmanuel Alakunle is the first author, while Dr. Malachy Ifeanyi Okeke, a virologist and assistant professor of biology from the Department of Natural and Environmental Sciences at the American University of Nigeria (AUN), is the senior and corresponding author of the paper.
The paper sheds light on the virus's ecology, genomics, infection biology, and evolution while also examining the disease's changing epidemiology and pathophysiology. The researchers' molecular dating analysis estimated that the B.1 lineage, which caused the global monkeypox outbreak in 2022, has been circulating since at least 2016, suggesting cryptic transmission of the virus prior to 2022.
The finding significantly contributes to understanding the virus's evolution and spread. This work results from an international collaboration between researchers from the American University of Nigeria, UiT - The Arctic University of Norway, Charles Darwin University Australia, and the University of Sunshine State Australia.
You can access the paper HERE
Reported by Aishatu Munnauwarah Yahya