The Economist - UK (2022-05-28)

74 Science & technology TheEconomistMay28th 2022

S

incebritainreporteda caseofmon­

keypoxonMay7th,morethan 300

furtherinstanceshavebeennotedacross

theworld.Thedisease,whichisusually

confinedtoAfrica,isnowpresentinat

least 17 countriesinEuropeandfive

othernon­Africanones(seemap).

Thesymptoms(fever,exhaustionand

pustuleswhichspreadacrosstheface

andbody)aresimilartothoseofsmall­

pox,a diseasethatonceplaguedhuman­

itybuthasnowbeenexterminated.Some

researcherssuggestthat,byending

routineanti­smallpoxvaccination,this

exterminationmayhaveopenedthedoor

formonkeypoxtospread.

TheWorldHealthOrganisation(who)

saystheillnessrarelykillshealthyadults

if treatedearly,butcanbedangerousfor

children,pregnantwomenandtheim­

munocompromised.Thosecaveatsare

important.Thereisnorecordedcaseof

anyoneoutsideAfricahavingdiedof

monkeypox.Butinthatcontinent,where

healthcareisoftenpoor,it isfatal3­6%

ofthetime.Also,a strainprevalentin

Congoismuchmorelikelytokillthan

thewestAfricanvariantnowspreading

outsidethecontinent.

PreviousEuropeanoutbreakshave

beenlimitedtotravellersfromAfrica,or

theirclosecontacts.Thefirstcasefound

inBritainthismonthinvolvedsomeone

recentlyarrivedfromNigeria.Since

then,thediseasehasspreadmorewidely.

ByMay25thBritainhaddiagnosed 71

cases.Spainhadreported119.Portugal,

39.Argentina,AustriaandDenmark

confirmedinfectionsonMay23rd.

Monkeypoxismostfrequentlytrans­

mittedbyskin­to­skincontact,bodily

fluidsorcontaminatedmaterialsuchas

clothesandbedding.Manyoftherecent

Europeaninfectionshavebeenlinkedto

bigevents,includinga gay­prideparade

inSpainanda fetishfestivalinBelgium.

HansKluge,thewho’s regionaldirector

forEurope,haswarnedthat“transmis­

sioncouldaccelerate”duringthesum­

mermonths,fuelledbyfestivalsand

parties.Herecommendsthoroughhand­

washingandprotectiveequipmentfor

healthworkers.Infectedpeopleandtheir

contactshavebeenadvisedtoisolatefor

21 daysandhealthauthoritiesareusing

contact­tracingtominimisethespread.

Butthevirusisnotasrapidlytrans­

missibleassars­cov­2.Nordoesit mu­

tateasquicklyascoronavirusesare

pronetodo,reducingtheriskofit sud­

denlybecomingmoredangerous.And

Westerncountriesknowhowtodeal

withit.Thelastbigoutbreakoutside

Africawasin2003,whenmonkeypox­

carryingprairiedogscausedmorethan

70 casesinAmerica.Thatincidentwas

quicklycontained.

Vaccinationcanhelppeoplerecover

evenaftertheyhavebeeninfected,and

smallpoxjabs(ofwhichmanycountries

retainlargestocks)areestimatedtobe

85%effectiveagainstmonkeypox.Some

placesarealready“ring­vaccinating”the

personalcontactsofthoseinfected,both

toprotecttheindividualsinquestion

andtobreakthechainofinfection.So,

althoughthenumberofcaseswillprob­

ablycontinuetorisefora while,mon­

keypoxismostunlikelytoleadtolock­

downsinthewaythatcovid­19did.

Anewoutbreakofdisease

Thespread of monkeypox

It isnotcovidmk2.Butitneedstobenippedinthebud

Cause for concern?

Monkeypox cases in non-endemic countries*, May 7th-25th 2022 5 50 Endemic countries

Sources:Airfinity;WHO *Confirmedandsuspected cases

Portugal 39

Canada (^23) Spain 119
Australia 2
Argentina 1
UnitedStates 8
Britain 71
No reported cases in Asia
wide  association  studies  (which  look  for
synergies  between  different  parts  of  a  ge­
nome),  may  be  able  to  excavate  and  make
use of these. 
“It's life insurance to be able to plant in
the future,” says Lise Lykke Steffensen, the
director  of  the  Nordic  Genetic  Resource
Centre,  which  operates  one  of  the  biggest
and  best­known  seed  banks,  the  Svalbard
Global Seed Vault, in the eponymous Nor­
wegian  archipelago.  Besides  the  obvious
risks of higher temperatures and more fre­
quent  droughts,  climate  change  may  also
encourage new pests and diseases. To pre­
pare  for  such  events,  breeders  will  need  a
formidable genetic arsenal to pick from. 
Though Kharkiv’s vault remains intact,
the  attack  has  sparked  worries.  Even  with
Russian  troops  now  driven  back,  the
150,000  samples  of  1,802  species  repre­
senting 544 types of crop which it hosts are
still at risk while the war rages. So are col­
lections of crops such as strawberries and
grapes  that  are  propagated  by  cuttings
rather than seeds, and are conserved by the
bank in open fields. 
Moreover,  Kharkiv’s  is  not  the  only  fa­
cility affected by the war. In March, for ex­
ample,  Ukraine  lost  access  to  a  plant­irri­
gation institute in Kherson when that city
fell to Russian forces. And, as Olga Trofimt­
seva, an agriculture expert at the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, observes, many agricul­
tural­research workers have joined the ar­
my, while others have left the country. 
A need for diversity
Such  problems  are  not  unprecedented.  In
2002 Afghanistan’s national seed bank, in
Kabul,  was  destroyed  in  combat  and  loot­
ed. A year later the same happened to Iraq’s
seed bank in Abu Ghraib. And a collection
of  seeds  from  dry  areas  based  in  Aleppo,
Syria, closed in 2012 as the civil war began,
and  had  to  be  re­established  in  Lebanon
and Morocco. 
It has thus become good practice in all
countries  to  back  up  seed  collections
abroad.  The  Svalbard  vault,  for  example,
holds some 1.1m samples, many of them on
behalf of other institutions. Even so, many
gene  banks,  Ukraine’s  included,  lack  the
resources  to  turn  out  the  extra  seeds  re­
quired  to  back  their  collections  up  com­
pletely. As a result, only 2,800 of Ukraine’s
150,000  samples  have  duplicates  in  Sval­
bard’s permafrost. 
The country does store some duplicates
elsewhere,  but  unfortunately  “elsewhere”
includes the Vavilov seed bank in St Peters­
burg, now enemy territory. Ms Trofimtseva
hopes  that  after  the  war  is  over  Ukraine’s
agricultural­research  institutions,  until
now  hard­wired  into  networks  developed
in Russian­imperial and Soviet times, will
diversify  their  connections  byalsoplug­
ging themselves into other institutions of
agronomy all around the world.n