Monkey pox in Germany: Do festivals have to be canceled?
WHO provides answers
Created: 06/28/2022, 12:32 p.m
By: Juliane Gutmann
By June 2022, there were around 5,000 monkeypox infections in humans worldwide this year, including in Germany.
You can read about the effects this has on our leisure time here.
“In contrast to human smallpox, which has been eradicated since 1980
, monkeypox is usually much milder
;
most people recover within several weeks”: At the end of May 2022, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the all-clear for the time being with regard to the worldwide spread of monkeypox.
Two months later, at the end of July, around 5,000 monkeypox infections were reported in Africa and more than 40 countries outside Africa, where monkeypox was practically unknown until May, the medical journal quotes statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Due to the atypical spread of monkeypox (monkeypox virus or genus orthopoxvirus in medical terms), which is primarily widespread in West and Central Africa, the WHO intervened more intensively.
At the end of June 2022, the emergency committee on monkeypox convened by the WHO started.
Experts had discussed whether an emergency of international scope should be declared.
Is it better to avoid crowds of people to avoid catching monkeypox?
(Archive image: Glastonbury Festival 2022) © Joel C Ryan/dpa
Major events do not have to be cancelled: but WHO urges caution
The result of the consultations: the outbreak of monkeypox is not classified by the WHO as an emergency of international concern for the time being.
The focus of the WHO summit was, among other things, on how to deal with major events such as festivals.
It was discussed, for example, to what extent this could accelerate the spread of monkeypox.
But the WHO came to the conclusion: "Mass events as such do not increase the risk of transmission, it is the behavior at these events," Der Spiegel quotes the World Health Organization as saying.
Monkeypox: Rash is similar to that of chickenpox
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Awareness is immensely important.
The possible transmission routes would have to be raised even further, as the WHO informs.
This includes
close contact with monkeypox patients
, for example during sexual intercourse or by touching infected areas such as skin pox.
You can find out what is supposed to be effective against monkeypox in the article "
Is a smallpox vaccination useful?
Professional societies advocate three measures against monkeypox".
(jg)
