A new STI in the city: MPOX in Barcelona. First outbreak (5/2022-5/2023) and subsequent resurgence

David Palma; Montserrat Guillaumes; Carles Pericas; Anna de Andrés; Raquel Prieto; Laia Álvarez-Bruned; Jesús Ospina; Paula Santiá; Patricia García de Olalla; Cristina Rius

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0296141

Peer Review History

Original SubmissionJanuary 2, 2024
26 Jun 2024 Decision Letter - Milad Zandi, Editor PONE-D-23-38786A new STI in the city: MPOX in Barcelona. First outbreak (5/2022-5/2023) and subsequent resurgencePLOS ONE Dear Dr. Palma, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Please submit your revised manuscript by Aug 10 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. 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Please see our Supporting Information guidelines for more information: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/supporting-information. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No ******** 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No ****** 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No ****** 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No ****** 5. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: This publication on an emerging infectious disease is quite important to its global preventive measures. The experience of the authors in the identification of the most susceptible group that are prone to Mpox will inform public health intervention by health leaders globally. Reviewer #2: The manuscript addresses an interesting topic but has several issues that need to be addressed: 1. The structure does not follow a typical descriptive study format. Key sections like inclusion and exclusion criteria for notified cases, as well as statistical analysis, are missing or inadequately described. 2. Essential descriptive data, such as the proportion of immunosuppression status, prior vaccination status for orthopoxvirus, and comprehensive clinical and laboratory findings, are not well-presented in the results section. Figures, charts, and tables lack adequate text descriptions. 3. The authors label the study as the "first report" of MPOX in the region, despite existing research reporting MPOX in the same area (e.g., https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofae105). 4. The abstract is missing a background section, and the original source of Figure 1 is not cited. ****** 6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Reviewer #1: Yes: Ado Garba Abubakar Reviewer #2: Yes: zahra heydarifard ******** [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296141.r001
Revision 1
9 Aug 2024 Author Response 1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No Methodology has been updated, with changes in the inclusion and exclusion criteria, the statistical analyses developed and the source of some of the presented images. 2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No We believe that our data has been extensively analyzed, however, we understand that some information could be improved, such as immunosuppression status, prior vaccination status for orthopoxvirus, and comprehensive clinical and laboratory findings. We have updated the results with the available information previously non presented. 3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No Anonymized data has been deposited in a public repository. 4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No Although a native revision was made before the submission, a new one was conducted. Improvements in English language are marked in yellow highlight. 5. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: This publication on an emerging infectious disease is quite important to its global preventive measures. The experience of the authors in the identification of the most susceptible group that are prone to Mpox will inform public health intervention by health leaders globally. We appreciate the kind words, and hope that our results, as you comment, could help the develop of public health interventions globally. Reviewer #2: The manuscript addresses an interesting topic but has several issues that need to be addressed: 1. The structure does not follow a typical descriptive study format. Key sections like inclusion and exclusion criteria for notified cases, as well as statistical analysis, are missing or inadequately described. We appreciate the comment provided and have made efforts to improve the outbreak manuscript format to follow a descriptive study. In that line, inclusion and exclusion criteria have been added as a single paragraph, while statistical analyses have been presented separately of source of information. 2. Essential descriptive data, such as the proportion of immunosuppression status, prior vaccination status for orthopoxvirus, and comprehensive clinical and laboratory findings, are not well-presented in the results section. Figures, charts, and tables lack adequate text descriptions. Changes have been made to all the commented issues with the available information. Also, the figures, charts and tables descriptions have been improved. However, laboratory findings were not presented, due to the high amount of missing data, with individuals who received both a generic POX and specific MPOX testing, while others who did not have information. We believe, reviewing similar literature, that the absence of information does not affect the outbreak's description. 3. The authors label the study as the "first report" of MPOX in the region, despite existing research reporting MPOX in the same area (e.g., https://doi.org/10.1093/ofid/ofae105). This is an important debate because we can confidently state that our complete data is not fully represented in the results presented in this article. For instance, a single city has reported more diagnoses than the 52 notifying centers combined. While we acknowledge the contributions of other authors, their study reports 1,472 cases, whereas ours presents 1,684. The study by Ramirez-Olivencia et al., a descriptive analysis of a series of cases, emphasizes that the majority of cases were reported in Madrid, Catalonia, and Andalusia. In contrast, our analysis, which is an outbreak report, focuses specifically on a single city—Barcelona (part of Catalonia)—and includes time-specific measures and preventive actions. We observed that while two centers in Barcelona may have reported cases to the study, they likely did not account for the total number of cases from each center. Additionally, it is probable that most cases included in the study were reported from Badalona, a city close to Barcelona, where the Hospital Can Ruti is located, and where some of the study's authors practice. 4. The abstract is missing a background section, and the original source of Figure 1 is not cited. Changes have been made in order to improve the quality of the abstract, as well as the original source of figure 1. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Letter to editors - MPOX PONE.pdf https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296141.r002
7 Oct 2024 Decision Letter - Vikash Jaiswal, Editor PONE-D-23-38786R1A new STI in the city: MPOX in Barcelona. First outbreak (5/2022-5/2023) and subsequent resurgencePLOS ONE Dear Dr. Palma, Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Please submit your revised manuscript by Nov 21 2024 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file. Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript: A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'. A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'. An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'. If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter. If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols. We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript. Kind regards, Vikash Jaiswal, MD Academic Editor PLOS ONE Journal Requirements: Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice. Additional Editor Comments: Dear Authors Please revise the draft as per reviewer suggestions. [Note: HTML markup is below. Please do not edit.] Reviewers' comments: Reviewer's Responses to Questions Comments to the Author 1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation. Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed ******** 2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions? The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously? Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available? The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: Yes ****** 5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English? PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here. Reviewer #1: Yes Reviewer #2: No ****** 6. Review Comments to the Author Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters) Reviewer #1: The authors have adequately addressed my comments on statistical analysis in the revised version of the manuscript. Reviewer #2: The manuscript needs to be thoroughly proofread for typos and language improvements. For instance, 'COVID-19' should be written in all caps throughout the text. All changes made by the authors should be highlighted in the manuscript. ****** 7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files. If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public. Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy. Reviewer #1: Yes: Ado G Abubakar Reviewer #2: Yes: Zahra Heydarifard ******** [NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.] While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296141.r003
Revision 2
23 Nov 2024 Author Response Thank you for your kind revisions. Attachments Attachment Submitted filename: Response to Reviewers.docx https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296141.r004
28 Nov 2024 Decision Letter - Vikash Jaiswal, Editor A new STI in the city: MPOX in Barcelona. First outbreak (5/2022-5/2023) and subsequent resurgence PONE-D-23-38786R2 Dear Dr. Palma, We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements. Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication. An invoice will be generated when your article is formally accepted. Please note, if your institution has a publishing partnership with PLOS and your article meets the relevant criteria, all or part of your publication costs will be covered. Please make sure your user information is up-to-date by logging into Editorial Manager at Editorial Manager® and clicking the ‘Update My Information' link at the top of the page. If you have any questions relating to publication charges, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org. If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. Kind regards, Vikash Jaiswal, MD Academic Editor PLOS ONE Additional Editor Comments (optional): Looks all comment has been resolved. Reviewers' comments: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296141.r005
Formally Accepted
3 Jan 2025 Acceptance Letter - Vikash Jaiswal, Editor PONE-D-23-38786R2 PLOS ONE Dear Dr. Palma, I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now being handed over to our production team. At this stage, our production department will prepare your paper for publication. This includes ensuring the following: * All references, tables, and figures are properly cited * All relevant supporting information is included in the manuscript submission, * There are no issues that prevent the paper from being properly typeset If revisions are needed, the production department will contact you directly to resolve them. If no revisions are needed, you will receive an email when the publication date has been set. At this time, we do not offer pre-publication proofs to authors during production of the accepted work. Please keep in mind that we are working through a large volume of accepted articles, so please give us a few weeks to review your paper and let you know the next and final steps. Lastly, if your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org. If we can help with anything else, please email us at customercare@plos.org. Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access. Kind regards, PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff on behalf of Dr. Vikash Jaiswal Academic Editor PLOS ONE https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0296141.r006

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