Viruses from nature are always mutating. Most aren’t dangerous to humans but occasionally they jump from their original hosts to other species which of course includes humans.
Living conditions that exist in Sub Sahara Africa and in Asia help promote this condition.
Monkey pox was first discovered in Africa in 1958.
So far, it looks like the same old virus, but once it got into a particularly active and promiscuous segment of the gay community, spread easily and far within those “sexual networks” as they are calling them. It’s a fairly stable DNA virus, doesn’t mutate away like say, cold viruses.
There’s two broad options - the virus has changed or the same old virus has found itself in the right place at the right time to thrive.
Monkeypox is a DNA virus so it does not mutate as rapidly as Covid or flu. Very early genetic analysis suggests the current cases are very closely related to forms of the virus seen in 2018 and 2019. It is too early to be sure, but for now there is no evidence this is a new mutant variant at play.
But a virus doesn’t have to change in order to take advantage of an opportunity, as we have learned from unexpected large outbreaks of both Ebola and Zika virus in the last decade.
“We always thought Ebola was easy to contain, until that wasn’t the case,” said Prof Adam Kucharski, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
It’s not clear why gay and bisexual men are disproportionately affected. Are sexual behaviours making it easier to spread? Is it just coincidence? Is it a community that is more aware of sexual health and getting checked out?
It may also be getting easier for monkeypox to spread. The mass smallpox vaccinations of the past would have given older generations some protection against the closely related monkeypox.
“It is probably transmitting more effectively than in the smallpox era, but we’re not seeing anything suggesting it could run rampant,” said Dr Adler, who still expects this outbreak to burn itself out.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-61524508