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Mature, oval-shaped monkeypox viruses
Photo: Cynthia S. Goldsmith / picture alliance/dpa/Russell Regner/CDC/AP
Two cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in Berlin.
This was announced by the Senate Department for Health on Saturday.
The condition of the two patients is stable.
Contact persons are currently being investigated.
Sequencing should reveal whether it is the West or Central African strain of the virus.
"It can be assumed that further infections may be registered in the next few days."
Health Senator Ulrike Gote (Greens) said there was no reason to panic, but reason to be cautious, as many scientific findings about the disease were still preliminary.
»However, experts assume that we do not have to fear a new pandemic.
But we now have to act quickly and consistently to identify and contain cases of infection.«
On Friday there was the first confirmation of a case of monkeypox in Germany.
According to the Bavarian Ministry of Health, it was about a 26-year-old from Brazil who had traveled from Portugal to Munich via Spain.
He suffers from the milder West African of the two known virus variants.
RKI does not believe in a wave of infections
The Central African virus variant, which often leads to serious illnesses, has not yet been observed in the cases currently reported in Europe.
The man went himself to the medical examination.
He is being treated in an isolated room at the Schwabing Clinic.
In contrast to human smallpox, which has been classified as eradicated since 1980, monkeypox usually takes a milder course, according to the RKI, so most people recover within weeks.
The pathogen is nevertheless always notifiable and may only be examined in specialized laboratories with special safety precautions, which include the Munich Institute for Microbiology of the German Armed Forces.
The Robert Koch Institute expects further cases in Germany, but not a wave of infections.
dop/dpa