Now the scale of outbreaks has significantly decreased, but the problem has not been eliminated. It has not become endemic practically anywhere, nevertheless it has shown its ability to spread in this way
Nikolai Kryuchkov
doctor-immunologist, candidate of medical sciences
“In the last 15 years, three new species within this genus of orthopoxviruses have been discovered that were previously unknown. One of them was discovered in Italy. There have been several outbreaks in animals, including domestic animals. Another was in Georgia. There were several human cases there. And the third is “Alaska smallpox.” It was first discovered in 2015, when in Alaska [to doctors] a patient with a characteristic skin rash and with inflammation of the lymph nodes. The genome of this species was deciphered by 2019, that is quite recently,” the specialist said.
According to the immunologist, if several theories of the appearance of “Alaska smallpox”.
“One of them is this: the virus circulated somewhere earlier, but subsequently for some reason it left the population. And reactivated relatively recently. It could have happened, for example, because some infected samples melted and got into the ecosystem, spread to small rodents, and then they infected some individual domestic animals that infected people,” he added.
Cases of Alaska Smallpox infection in humans
Kryuchkov also said that by now there are seven known cases of human infection with Alaska smallpox, including one fatal case.
