How to detect monkey poxvirus? Hint: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

Abstract

A minute of silence. Kary Banks Mullis has passed away (07/08/2019). However, his legacy remains with us. His legacy has made it possible to detect one of the deadliest viruses since the so-called Spanish flu of 1920, which caused more deaths than the First World War. Kary Mullis invented the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and that is probably why he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1993. Today, there are those who wonder if Molecular Biology (and Medicine) is divided into a before and after PCR. Something as important as other important contributions to our Humanity such as those described by James Watson, Rosalind Franklin, Francis Crick, or Albert Einstein. Yes, monkeypox and its associated agent may be the reason for the use of PCR, and although the minds of great scientists and countries are still focused on COVID19 and the associated pathogen; SARS-CoV-2, would not be unwise to pay more attention to another virus that in humans is said to have been eradicated from the planet since 1980, according to WHO.