Investigating seroprevalence of IgG antibodies against Monkeypox Virus (MPXV) in a cohort of people living with HIV (PLWH) in Rome, during the 2022 outbreak: moving beyond traditional at-risk populations.

BACKGROUND

High incidence mpox rates suggest asymptomatic individuals may contribute to virus transmission. We undertook this study to assess the seroprevalence of IgG anti-MPXV in a cohort of asymptomatic PLWH, to analyze the size of the phenomenon of asymptomatic infections.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

From October 2022 to March 2023 we serially collected serum samples from PLWH attending our Clinic. IgG against MPXV have been assessed on stored cryopreserved samples with an ELISA. Only people with no previous reported vaccine against smallpox or mpox nor previous clinical manifestations consistent with an mpox diagnosis were included.

RESULTS

285 PLWH were included. Twenty-one participants tested positive for IgG anti MPXV (7.37%, 95% CI 4.62-11.0). Seropositivity was predominant in male (15/285, 71.4) with a small fraction of female (6/285,28.6%) and PWID (1/285,4.8%).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest the possibility of an asymptomatic course of the mpox infection even in populations beyond traditional high-risk groups.

Informations de copyright

Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Déclaration de conflit d'intérêts

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.