RKI: Monkeypox infection in small children in Germany

Created: 06/09/2022 15:31

An electron micrograph shows mature, oval monkeypox viruses (l).

© Cynthia S. Goldsmith/Russell Regner/CDC/AP/dpa/Symbolbild

In the course of the monkeypox outbreak, a first case in a small child in Germany has been confirmed.

"At the beginning of September, a monkeypox infection in a child became known, which is currently being investigated," writes the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) in its assessment of the situation.

As can be seen from an RKI database, one case has been reported nationwide in the group of children under the age of five:

Verden/Berlin - from Lower Saxony.

As an RKI spokeswoman explained on Tuesday when asked, information was provided on the website for the first time on Friday last week.

The infection with the monkeypox virus was confirmed in the child after a visit to the pediatrician, said a spokesman for the Verden district on Tuesday.

The district had also made the first statements public on Friday.

The exact age of the child was not given for reasons of privacy protection - but it was younger than three.

Typical skin changes were found on him.

According to the spokesman, the Verden health department is still researching where the child could have been infected.

An infection within the family is suspected because the child is not yet going to kindergarten.

It is now in quarantine with its family.

The vast majority of the more than 3,500 patients recorded nationwide are men.

"So far, only 14 female cases and three cases in male adolescents in Germany have been reported," notes the RKI.

Experts have been emphasizing for some time that anyone who comes into close contact with an infected person can become infected with the pathogen - even if, according to the RKI, transmission has so far primarily occurred in the context of sexual activities, "currently especially among men who have sexual contact with other men to have".

In August, an official report about a monkeypox infection in a four-year-old girl from Pforzheim was revised: According to further tests, the symptom-free child was not infected with the virus, it was said.

dpa