WHO convenes emergency committee over monkeypox

Created: 06/15/2022, 05:39

Electron micrograph of monkeypox virus.

© Andrea Männel/Andrea Schnartendorff/RKI/dpa

The World Health Organization (WHO) convenes the emergency committee because of the monkeypox cases in numerous countries.

Geneva – The expert council of the WHO decides whether – like the coronavirus – it is a “public health emergency of international concern” (PHEIC).

"The outbreak of monkeypox is unusual and worrying," WHO chief Tedros wrote on Twitter.

For this reason, he decided to convene the emergency committee next week.

Monkey pox: Germany reports 200 cases – according to the RKI, no cases in women and children are known

In Germany, the number of monkeypox cases has risen to more than 200.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reports 229 monkeypox cases from eleven federal states (as of June 14).

Monkeypox cases have been reported to the RKI from Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Berlin, Brandenburg, Hamburg, Hesse, Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saxony-Anhalt and Schleswig-Holstein.

Furthermore, no cases in women and children are known, said an RKI spokeswoman at the request of the dpa news agency.

"According to current knowledge, the RKI assesses the risk to the health of the general population in Germany as low," says the RKI website.

Virologist: "The numbers are not a surprise and not frightening"

"The numbers are not surprising and not frightening - according to the current state of knowledge, as expected, the virus is transmitted practically only through direct contact," said virologist Gerd Sutter from the Institute for Infectious Medicine and Zoonoses at the LMU Munich on Tuesday on request.

He described the rate of spread as “relatively slow”.

With the vaccination of contact persons or specific target groups "it should still be possible to limit the outbreak," he expects.

There are still isolated transmissions, "but the outbreak tends not to develop exponentially growing numbers of cases," said Timo Ulrichs, an expert in global health at the Akkon University of Human Sciences in Berlin, on request.

A sexually transmitted infection spreads more slowly than one that is airborne.

Since May, monkeypox has been detected in hundreds of people in numerous countries outside of Africa.

"It was to be expected that monkeypox made it out of Africa into the world at all, but it was surprising in this dynamic," says Ulrichs.

The now documented cases in Germany could be well limited by various measures.

This includes comprehensive and good information about transmission routes and protection options - this essentially corresponds to the safer sex rules - as well as targeted vaccinations.

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Vaccine against monkeypox in Germany

As Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) recently announced, the vaccine should be available from June 15th.

The Standing Committee on Vaccination (Stiko) announced last week that the smallpox vaccine Imvanex would be recommended for certain groups.

These include adults who have had contact with infected people and men who have same-sex sexual contacts with changing partners.

Because of the initially limited availability of the vaccine, it was said that the vaccine should be offered preferentially to people who have been exposed to the virus.

The European Union has bought around 110,000 doses of monkeypox vaccine.

As the EU Commission announced, the contract with the company Bavarian Nordic for 109,090 doses of third-generation vaccine was concluded on Tuesday.

According to EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, the first doses should be delivered to the EU states by the end of June.

There are currently 900 cases of monkeypox in the EU and around 1,400 worldwide.

Monkeypox is considered a less severe disease compared to smallpox, which has been eradicated since 1980.

Experts had warned of the virus spreading, for example at upcoming festivals and parties.

According to the RKI, the incubation period is 5 to 21 days.

Symptoms (including fever and skin rash, for example) usually go away on their own within a few weeks, but can lead to medical complications and, in very rare cases, death in some people.