Official doctor: Vaccination first after contact with infected people

Created: 06/15/2022Updated: 06/15/2022 21:31

Nicolai Savaskan, medical officer of the district of Neukölln.

© Britta Pedersen/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa/Archive image

According to a Berlin medical officer, vaccinations against monkeypox should be used in a very targeted manner.

There is a consensus among the city's health authorities that the vaccine should not initially be used preventively in certain groups - but primarily in people who have actually had close contact with infected people, said the Neukölln district medical officer, Nicolai Savaskan, on Wednesday Inquiry.

Berlin - The aim of vaccination in such cases is to mitigate the course of the disease.

It was initially unclear when the first vaccine doses could be injected in the capital.

The Federal Ministry of Health expected a delivery of smallpox vaccine for Wednesday, which can be used against monkeypox.

The federal government makes it available to the federal states, a ministry spokesman announced on Tuesday.

Nothing was initially known about the exact distribution key.

The Berlin health administration initially did not comment on this on Wednesday when asked.

The website now speaks of 168 confirmed cases in the capital, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) speaks of around 260 nationwide.

The vaccine, called Imvanex, uses a weakened vaccine virus to generate an immune response.

Against this background, Savaskan further said that caution should be exercised in people with suppressed immune systems.

Doubts about the multiplication and fusion of viruses cannot be ruled out.

"There is also a fear that people would feel a false sense of security if they were vaccinated preventively and would neglect safer sex rules," said Savaskan.

According to him, condoms protect because mucous membrane contact is crucial for the transmission of the monkeypox virus.

However, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) points to many other transmission routes for monkeypox.

The RKI emphasizes that wearing condoms alone does not protect against infection.

Infected people should avoid any kind of close contact, including protected sexual contact, with other people until the rash has cleared and the last scab has fallen off.

Transmission is possible, for example, when unspecific symptoms (such as fever, headache and body aches) occur and even before skin lesions occur during face-to-face contact due to excreted respiratory secretions.

Medical officer Savaskan advises people with changing sex partners to regularly inspect themselves for skin changes.

Anyone who is infected should cover the smallpox on the skin to protect the surrounding area from infection.

According to Savaskan, the districts with the most cases so far are Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Schöneberg and Neukölln.

Most cases are associated with trips to places where there have been major transmission events, and only in a few cases has the place of infection been unclear.

"So far, monkeypox has not been documented in the area of ​​sex work in Berlin - but one must say that the incubation period is 21 days, so any infections may not become known until later."

Savaskan underlined that due to the different transmission routes, no pandemic potential like Covid-19 is to be expected.

dpa