Symptomatology, prognosis, and clinical findings of Monkeypox infected patients during COVID‐19 era: A systematic‐review

BACKGROUND: The recent outbreak of Human Monkeypox (MPXV) in nonendemic regions of the world is of great concern. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to systematically analyze the current epidemiology, clinical presentation, and outcomes of the Monkeypox virus. METHOD: Systematic literature was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, and Scopus using predefined MESH terms by using “AND” and “OR.” The following search terms were used: Monkeypox [MeSH] OR “Monkeypox virus” [MeSH] OR “POX” OR “Monkeypox” AND “Outbreak” AND “Outcomes” from December 2019 till 14th June 2022 without restrictions of language. RESULTS: A total of 1074 (99.90%) patients tested positive for Monkeypox virus through RT‐PCR while 1 (0.09) patient was suspected. There was a gender difference with male predominance (54.23% vs. 45.48%) compared with female patients. Mean age (±SD) of patients was 20.66 ± 16.45 years. The major symptoms were rash (100%), fever (96%), and other important symptoms were upper respiratory symptoms (97%), headache (95%), vomiting (95%), oral ulcers (96%), conjunctivitis (96%) and lymphadenopathy (85%). The average mean duration of treatment was 5 days, while the mean hospitalization duration was 13.3 ± 6.37 days. The outcome of 20 patients was available, 19 of 20 patients recovered fully from monkeypox, however, 1 patient was not able to survive resulting in death. CONCLUSION: The recent monkeypox virus outbreak has shown that the virus could transmit in ways that were not previously expected. Further research is needed to understand the possible outcomes and association with humans and their different organ systems.