A team of researchers from the Indian Council of Medical Research – National Institute of Virology, Pune, found that the monkeypox virus strain circulating in the country is different from the strain in Europe. The team conducted genetic sequencing of two monkeypox cases from Kerala and concluded that they were different from the strain that caused "superspreader events" in Europe, leading to the global outbreak of the disease.

The data showed that the virus present in the country is A.2, which was recently transmitted from the Middle East to India. On the other hand, the strain that caused the outbreak in Europe was B.1. Dr. Vinod Scaria, CISR – Institute of Genomic and Integrative Biology, tweeted that the current human transmission of the monkeypox virus happened via super-spreader events in Europe.

He further added that the distinct clusters of human-human transmission have possibly been unrecognized for years. The earliest sample in the cluster from the US was from 2021, suggesting that the virus has been circulating for quite some time, even before the European events. Dr. Scaria stated that public health measures and communication need to consider these new insights. He also suggested that increasing genomic surveillance in the country could help in controlling the cases.

(Source: https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/diagnostics/monkeypox-strain-in-india-different-from-europe-icmr-niv-study/93226736 )