Monkeypox: EpiMPX Surveillance System and Open-Data with a Special Focus on European and Italian Epidemic

Abstract

The current out-of-Africa 2022 outbreak of Monkeypox requires a coordinated, international response through the rapid sharing of real-world data and research results, as seen with COVID-19 and the previous Ebola and Zika. To support global response efforts for effective use of open data, we have built EpiMPX, a surveillance system to monitor the impact of Monkeypox in Europe, with special focus on the epidemic in the Italian regions and based on an open-access database containing laboratory confirmed cases reported by EU/EEA countries. Additionally, R codes are provided to users to estimate key epidemiological parameters such as reproduction number and produce real-time results. EpiMPX monitors the space-time distribution of cases and their characteristics, such as age, gender, symptoms, clinical status, and sexual orientation. Even if early, we estimated reproduction number R t in European countries with more than 28 days of observed incidence, providing a visual assessment of the risk areas geographic distribution, as well as insights into the evolution of the ongoing outbreak. Italian data concerned gender, region prevalence, cumulative data. EpiMPX provided a European and Italian Monkeypox epidemiological situation overview with an open-access database to support epidemiological understanding and transmission dynamics of the disease origins, with informative graphical outputs. For the first time, Italian data on the regional distribution of cases and gender distribution were graphically evaluated. The data and research results are freely available can be easily enriched to provide a prompt response to the scientific community and accelerate global efforts to contain the Monkeypox virus.

Publication
Journal of Clinical Virology Plus

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