Mpox Information Center
July 25, 2023
Elsevier's free resource for clinical information and research on the mpox virus
Caption: Monkeypox virus (© istock.com/kontekbrothers)
Note: In line with WHO ending the Public Health Emergency of International Concern for Mpox on 11 May 2023, Mpox-related content published up until July 2023 will remain freely available.
Mpox — a zoonotic viral disease endemic to western and central Africa — has become a public health emergency of international concern. It's spread via direct contact, respiratory droplets, and contaminated materials and surfaces. Mpox is caused by the mpox virus, which belongs to the Orthopoxvirus genus of the Poxviridae family; other members of Orthopoxvirus include variola virus (which causes smallpox), vaccinia virus (used in smallpox vaccines), cowpox virus, and various other animal poxviruses. Mpox classically presents with rash, fever, lymphadenopathy, and a clinical course similar to that of smallpox but milder; case fatality rates of 3% to 6% have been reported in African countries where the disease is endemic, and Brazil, Spain and India have reported the first mpox deaths(opens in new tab/window) outside of endemic countries.
This information, from ClinicalKey, is available in Elsevier's Mpox Healthcare Hub(opens in new tab/window) — one of various resources we are offering here for clinicians, researchers and public health officials.
Clinical information
To help healthcare professionals respond to the outbreak, Elsevier has created the Mpox Healthcare Hub. Here you will find evidence-based clinical resources, including clinical overviews, patient education and drug monographs.
Research
Elsevier and the Lancet Mpox content collections
We identified Mpox-related articles from Elsevier, Cell Press and The Lancet, along with Mpox-related book chapters, and made them freely available on ScienceDirect(opens in new tab/window) and via The Lancet(opens in new tab/window) for the duration of the crisis. We also made this collection available as a machine-readable corpus to enable advanced discovery methods and identification of patterns and relationships in data (text and data mining).
Additionally, we collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make this content rapidly and freely available to global research and health communities as well as the general public from Pubmed Central (PMC) at PMC Mpox Collection(opens in new tab/window), including for text and data mining via the PMC Open Access Subset(opens in new tab/window).
In line with WHO ending the Public Health Emergency of International Concern for Mpox on 11 May 2023, Mpox-related content published up until July 2023 will remain freely available. This content is available both via Elsevier’s websites, as well as via PMC whom we allow to retain this content in perpetuity under the terms of the original licenses.
Here are some example articles:
Clinical features and management of human monkeypox: a retrospective observational study in the UK(opens in new tab/window),The Lancet Infectious Diseases (August 2022)
Global human monkeypox outbreak: atypical presentation demanding urgent public health action(opens in new tab/window), The Lancet Microbe (August 2022)
Monkeypox in 2022: A new threat in developing(opens in new tab/window), Annals of Medicine and Surgery (June 2022)
The new face of monkeypox virus: an emerging global emergency(opens in new tab/window), New Microbes and New Infections (April–May 2022)
Smallpox, Monkeypox, and Other Poxvirus Infections(opens in new tab/window), ScienceDirect Topics: Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science
Early-stage research on SSRN’s Mpox Hub
Rapidly evolving healthcare emergencies necessitate the quick dissemination of research. SSRN(opens in new tab/window) — Elsevier’s platform for the rapid worldwide dissemination of early-stage research — is committed to making authors' Mpox-related preprints available immediately. Their Mpox Hub(opens in new tab/window) provides a curated view into new early-stage research to help researchers, public health authorities, clinicians and the public understand, contain, navigate, and manage the current outbreak. By presenting insights from many disciplines, they hope to inform the ongoing conversation about the Mpox virus.
Research on SSRN is free to download and upload. It is important to note that these preprints have not benefited from the pivotal role of the peer-review process, which validates and improves the quality of final published journal articles.
Mpox datasets on Mendeley Data
We have selected datasets indexed by the Data Monitor search engine on the 2022 Mpox outbreak to make it easier to find potentially relevant datasets for this topic.
Public health
Here, you will find guidance and commentary from experts along with official guidance from major health organizations. For research on public health, see the Research section(opens in new tab/window).
What do HIV and COVID-19 have to do with Mpox?
As Mpox spreads, what lessons can we apply from the last two pandemics? Elsevier author Prof Rodney Rohde of Texas State University — a microbiologist and infectious disease expert — weighs in. Read his editorial(opens in new tab/window)
Lancet podcast
What’s happening with mpox in Africa? Why wasn’t Mpox tackled when we had the chance? What will the PHEIC declaration change? For this episode of The Lancet Voice(opens in new tab/window), Prof Yap Boum, Epicentre Representative for Africa, the research arm of Medecins sans Frontières, joins Gavin Cleaver and guest host Dr Miriam Lewis Sabin, North American Executive Editor of The Lancet.
