Introduction:

Monkeypox virus (MPXV) is an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus with a genome of approximately 197.209 bp. The current classification divides MPXV into three clades: Clade I (Central African or Congo Basin clade) and clades IIa and IIb (West African clades).

Objective:

To report the complete genome and phylogenetic analysis of a human monkeypox case detected in Colombia.

Materials and methods:

Exudate from vesicular lesions was obtained from a male patient with recent travel history to Spain. A direct genomic approach was implemented in which total DNA from the sample was purified through a column-based method, followed by sequencing on the Nanopore GridION. Reads were aligned against the MPXV reference genome using minimap2 v.2.24 and phylogenetic inference was performed using maximum likelihood estimation.

Results:

A total of 11.951 reads mapped directly to a reference genome with 96.8% of coverage (190.898 bp).

Conclusion:

Phylogenetic analysis of the MPXV circulating in Colombia demonstrated its close relationship to clade IIb responsible for the multi-country outbreak in 2022.

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