Saskatoon scientist awarded $500K to study mpox virus

By Halyna Mihalik

Saskatoon virologist Alyson Kelvin, who studies infectious diseases, has been awarded half a million dollars from the Canadian government to research the rapidly growing disease of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox.

The same amount was also awarded to one of Kelvin’s colleagues for related studies, for a combined total of $1 million. The government put out a funding call for research to better understand the virus last September, and issued another funding call in December.

“Last year, the increase of mpox cases globally led to a public health emergency of international concern,” said Kelvin.

Kelvin said she and her team of scientists from the University of Manitoba and UCLA will be researching the rapidly growing virus, specifically analyzing the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where mpox is most prominent.

Although Kelvin said she won’t be visiting the African country herself, other members of her team will be working on the ground, and the UCLA has a research base there.

Mpox originated in the DRC in the 1970s, and since the early 2000s the country has seen nearly 2,000 cases of mpox a year.

By examining how people in the area interact with animals that carry the virus, Kelvin said her team will try to limit the crossover of mpox from animals to humans.

“When human cases are reported of mpox, we will then go look at that area for animals that could be infected and figure out if these people had contact with wild animals,” said Kelvin.

More than 1,000 human mpox cases were found in Canada last year, and Kelvin said she will be investigating how animals such as beavers and prairie dogs could be infected by the virus.

Her research will also try to identify if domestic animals, such as dogs, could also contract mpox. If people who have contracted mpox from a wild animal could pass the virus onto their pet, she said it would ultimately lead to more cases.

Kelvin said the Canadian government stepping in to help examine an issue present in Africa is important and necessary.

“What happens in one place will also affect us,” she said. “Problems that occur in other countries are still our problem as well.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an amended version of this story, correcting the number of cases found in Canada last year.