A new study published in the scientific journal Virologica Sinica of the Wuhan Institute of Virology says that their lab isolated virus strains related to monkeypox in 2020.
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In a recently published study, researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology identified new strains of a virus that is “closely related” to monkeypox.
Another study produced by the disputed Chinese lab in February 2022 documented the assembly of new monkeypox virus strains, which was also unearthed. The research was completed just months before the latest international outbreak of monkeypox cases, which has already spread to the United States.
The newly discovered work “Identification, Isolation, and Characterization of an Ectromelia Virus New Strain from an Experimental Mouse” (pdf below) was originally published on July 21st, 2020, by eleven researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In 2021, it was published in the scientific journal Virologica Sinica of the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
The “isolation” of a new strain of Ectromelia Virus (ECTV) – “ECTV-WH” – from an experimental mouse brain is described in the study. The strain was identified as having “higher replication efficiency in vivo and higher transmitting efficiency to cause respiratory infection in mic,” according to the researchers.
The researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology also point out that ECTV is quite similar to monkeypox:
“ECTV is closely related to Variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox, and Monkeypox virus, the causative agent of a severe zoonosis. It is an attractive virus model for study of poxvirus pathogenesis, viral immune and inflammatory responses, and could be used for antiviral and vaccine tests.”
The ECTV strain from the Wuhan Institute of Virology was “preserved in the National Virus Resource Center” at the time of the study’s publication. It “ould be provided as an important virus resource for study on poxvirus,” according to the researchers.
Several Chinese Communist Party-run scientific organizations, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and military-linked enterprises, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China, backed the study.
The finding comes after the Wuhan Institute of Virology admitted that its facilities lacked basic laboratory safety measures while undertaking similar research on strains of bat coronaviruses that potentially infect people.
Read the study given below:
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