interleukin-1β (il-1β) inhibitor that prevents interaction with the receptor. the viral complement control protein (ccp), also known as mopice, a virulence factor, allows the virus to evade neutralization, opsonization, viral particle lysis, and phagocytosis. the monkey pox virus can prevent apoptosis in infected cells by targeting apoptotic pathways; the mechanism is still under research. moreover, the monkey pox virus can evade cytotoxicity mediated by t-cell and natural killer cells by producing mhc classi-like protein(omcp) which resembles mhc class i module and it binds to nkg2d. natural killer t cells continually survey cells with nkg2d for absence of mhc class i proteins; the monkeypox virus with its omcp passes the check. the virus also produces other proteins that further block cytotoxic activities. evading the host immune system is crucial because of how large the monkeypox virus is. in short, mpv has a unique immune system, mhc dependent, evasion tactic to evade antiviral cd4+ and cd8+ t cell responses. variants and clades the virus is subclassified into two main clades, the central african/congo basin clade (ca) and the west african clade (wa). the world health organization uses roman numerals to denote each clade and a lowercase latin script letter for subclades. at the protein level, the ca clade and wa clade share 170 orthologs, and their transcriptional regulatory sequences show no significant differences. both clades have 53 common virulence genes, which contain different types of amino acid changes. 121 of the amino acid changes in the virulence genes are silent, while 61 are conservative, and 93 are non-conservative. both clades vary in virulence, with the ca clade having more human-human transmission, and having a higher mortality rate in non-vaccinated people. the wa clade was thought to be less transmissible between humans. the 2022–2023 mpox outbreak was caused by the wa clade of the virus. clades and subclades of monkeypox virus name former names nations case fatality rate (cfr) clade i congo basin central african cameroon central african republic democratic republic of the congo gabon republic of the congo south sudan ~10.6% clade ii clade iia west african benin cameroon cote d'ivoire liberia nigeria sierra leone ~3.6% clade iib see 2022–2023 mpox outbreak § cases per country and territory distribution a map of the spread of the monkeypox virus globally. endemic west african clade endemic congo basin clade both clades recorded west african clade outbreak in 2022 monkeypox virus is carried by various animals, including primates, and causes disease in both primates and in other animals. it was first identified by preben von magnus in copenhagen, denmark, in 1958 in crab-eating macaque monkeys (macaca fascicularis) being used as laboratory animals. the virus was given the name monkeypox virus after being isolated from monkeys, but most of the carriers of this virus are rodents. the virus is mainly found in the tropical forests of central africa and west africa. the virus was first discovered in humans in 1970. between 1970 and 1986, over 400 cases in humans were reported. small viral outbreaks with secondary human-to-human infection occur routinely in equatorial central and west africa. the primary route of infection is thought to be contact with the infected animals or their bodily fluids. the first reported outbreak outside africa occurred in 2003 in the midwestern united states in illinois, indiana, and wisconsin, with one occurrence in new jersey. the 2003 outbreak in the united states was traced to prairie dogs infected from an imported gambian pouched rat from ghana. a significant outbreak in nigeria occurred in 2017. research the monkeypox virus is a highly complex virus and is not yet fully understood. many laboratories across the globe continue to study the virus as it has been spreading significantly outside of its endemic areas. pathologic examination of the virus are carefully being done on formalin-fixed or inactivated tissues. one study done by manes et al. inoculated a mpv strain obtained from the cdc into hela cells. the original strain was obtained from a victim of the virus. most of our current understanding of the monkeypox virus stems from the knowledge cultivated from studying the variola virus. moreover, there are multiple sites conducting epidemiological analysis on the spread of the disease and its evolution as new variants arise. like the public extinction of smallpox through a global coordinated effort of vaccination, it may be possible to drive the monkeypox virus into extinction with effective vaccination due to its relatively low virulence.