Monkeypox virus isolation from a semen sample collected in the early phase of infection in a patient with prolonged seminal viral shedding.

Competing Interests: We declare no competing interests. DL and FC contributed equally to this work. AA and FM contributed equally to this work. The patient provided written informed consent to the use of their data and clinical samples for the research purposes of the present study, for which we thank them. We thank the nursing and laboratory staff for their crucial contributions in collecting and processing samples. This work was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health (Ricerca Corrente—line 1 and 2) and the European Commission Horizon 2020 (European-Virus-Archive-GLOBAL—871029). The INMI Monkeypox Study Group includes Isabella Abbate, Alessandro Agresta, Alessandra Amendola, Andrea Antinori, Francesco Baldini, Tommaso Ascoli Bartoli, Alessia Beccacece, Rita Bellagamba, Giulia Berno, Aurora Bettini, Nazario Bevilacqua, Licia Bordi, Marta Camici, Fabrizio Carletti, Angela Corpolongo, Stefania Cicalini, Francesca Colavita, Alessandra D'Abramo, Gabriella De Carli, Federico De Zottis, Lavinia Fabeni, Francesca Faraglia, Federica Forbici, Concetta Maria Fusco, Roberta Gagliardini, Anna Rosa Garbuglia, Saba Gebremeskel, Maria Letizia Giancola, Emanuela Giombini, Enrico Girardi, Giulia Gramigna, Elisabetta Grilli, Susanna Grisetti, Cesare Ernesto Maria Gruber, Eleonora Lalle, Simone Lanini, Daniele Lapa, Gaetano Maffongelli, Fabrizio Maggi, Alessandra Marani, Andrea Mariano, Ilaria Mastrorosa, Giulia Matusali, Silvia Meschi, Valentina Mazzotta, Claudia Minosse, Klizia Mizzoni, Martina Moccione, Annalisa Mondi, Vanessa Mondillo, Nicoletta Orchi, Sandrine Ottou, Carmela Pinnetti, Silvia Pittalis, Vincenzo Puro, Silvia Rosati, Gabriella Rozera, Martina Rueca, Laura Scorzolini, Eliana Specchiarello, Francesco Vaia, Francesco Vairo, Beatrice Valli, Alessandra Vergori, and Serena Vita.