Mpox, Monkeypox

Mpox is caused by monkeypox virus. The disease is usually transmitted to humans through bites or contact with an animal's blood, and human-to-human transmission is relatively low compared with smallpox. The literature also describes reemergence and exportation of cases from endemic settings, but the supplied grounding does not support additional causal factors.

The virus is described as a zoonotic orthopoxvirus with infection biology shaped by human, cellular, and viral factors that modulate transmission, infection, and maintenance in nature. The supplied reviews emphasize immune evasion, including interference with nuclear factor kappa B signaling, cytokine production, complement and inflammasome activation, chemokine binding, and modulation of interferons, interleukins, Toll-like receptors, and natural killer cell responses. Evolutionary mechanisms such as recombination, gene loss, and gene gain are also noted.

Exposure to infected animals is a key risk factor, particularly through bites or contact with animal blood. The grounding also indicates that zoonotic spillover and reemergence in endemic regions contribute to risk, but it does not support more specific host or behavioral risk factors. Human-to-human transmission is described as relatively low.