Oral manifestations of monkeypox: Brief review

Abstract

The current outbreak of monkeypox infection has caught the attention of people worldwide. Updated data showed a dramatic increase in the number of patients in many non-endemic countries. An emergence of monkeypox together with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused a tremendous burden on the healthcare system, globally.The aim of this review was to briefly describe the current situation, transmission, clinical features, diagnosis, and prevention of the disease. Oral manifestations of monkeypox as well as those of similar viral diseases were elaborately delineated.The outbreak of monkeypox in non-endemic regions has expanded to at least 47 countries with more than 4,100 new infections. The clinical features in non-endemic regions are atypical and different from those in central and western Africa. Milder symptoms with no death cases have been observed. The oral mucosa is often involved and oral lesions may initially be manifested before the rash spreads to the face and other parts of the body. The diagnosis of monkeypox is mainly based on clinical presentations and laboratory investigations. Prevention by avoiding close contacts with patients and sick animals and providing vaccination to those who have a primary contact with patients is essential.Oral manifestations may occur prior to skin eruptions, suggesting that dentists and dental personnel should be well aware of the nature of the disease. Prevention and public awareness of the disease are crucial for mitigating further human-to-human transmission.

Peri-oral Monkeypox Virus Infection: A Clinical Report with Confirmatory Polymerase Chain Reaction Findings

“…Interestingly, lesions may occur in the same individuals at different stages. These oral symptoms have never before been described in patients in the endemic region [ 27 ]. In a study carried out by Thornhill et al in 2022, 26 people demonstrated oropharyngeal symptoms such as oral or tonsillar lesions, odynophagia, epiglottitis, and pharyngitis as the first symptoms [ 28 ].…”

Colliding Pandemics and CoViD-19

“…Current pandemic manifestations have revealed characteristic of oral and oropharyngeal lesions that appear concurrently with the first skin lesions and rashes, with accompanying fever and swollen lymph nodes [ 15 ]. MPXV-positive patients may manifest vesicular or pustular lesions in the oral cavity, often with oral blisters of a spherical shape and a crimson border after breaking off the roofs of the vesicle or pustule.…”

“…The sores are initially painful and later itchy [ 16 ]. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has confirmed that 70% of MPXV patients had some form of mouth or tongue lesions [ 15 ].…”

“…Taken together, these data suggest that saliva can harbor the MPXV, and transmission can occur through oral-skin and/oral-anogenital contact [ 15 ]. These observations also indicate that dentists and dental personnel may be not only the first health professionals to encounter and diagnose MPXV manifestations in their patients [ 15 ], but also the health professionals most at risk of inadvertent infection.…”

Clinicopathological and molecular approaches to the diagnosis of oral lesions in Mpox: Case report

“…2 Several recent reports on MPXV-oral lesions have been published. [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Two scoping reviews 3,4 and a meta-analysis 5 have provided valuable insights into the presence and clinical characteristics of MPXV-oral lesions. However, to our knowledge, information regarding the histological and ultrastructural MPVX findings in the oral mucosa is not available.…”