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Hands of a monkeypox patient (archive image)
Photo: Uncredited / dpa
Mass vaccinations against monkeypox are currently not necessary.
This was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Measures such as hygiene and preventive sexual behavior would help contain the spread of the virus, Richard Pebody, head of the pathogen team at WHO Europe, told Reuters.
The most important measures to combat the outbreak are tracing contacts and isolating those who are infected.
Vaccine stocks are relatively limited.
Monkeypox is found mainly in Africa and very rarely elsewhere, making recent outbreaks in other parts of the world unusual, with more than 100 total confirmed and suspected cases.
Symptoms include fever, headache, and skin rashes, which usually start on the face and spread to the rest of the body.
The disease is usually mild.
Pediatricians complain of scaremongering
Pediatricians complained about the "scaremongering" of monkeypox.
The monkeypox virus is "far less contagious than Corona" and is transmitted almost exclusively through "close physical contact and bodily fluids," said the President of the Professional Association of Pediatricians Thomas Fischbach, the "Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung".
"It is extremely unlikely that children will contract monkeypox in the current situation in Europe," said the chairman of the German Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Tobias Tenenbaum, of the newspaper.
“There are also no known cases of monkeypox spreading within families in Europe.
So parents don't need to worry at the moment."
According to Tenenbaum, reports about a particular risk situation for children "currently have no data basis".
Fischbach emphasized that there is no data in Germany on the severe course of a monkeypox infection in children, and that data from Africa cannot be directly transferred to local conditions because of the poor general health situation there.
On Tuesday afternoon, Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) wants to comment on the course of action after the occurrence of the first cases of monkeypox in Germany on the sidelines of the German Doctors' Day in Bremen.
Doctor President Klaus Reinhardt and President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, will also attend the press conference.
At the beginning of May, a case of monkeypox was detected in Great Britain – according to experts, the pathogen was already circulating in many countries.
The first case in Germany was reported from Bavaria, and there have now also been reports from other federal states such as Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Baden-Württemberg.
kha/Reuters/AFP
