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California also declares a monkeypox emergency

2022-08-02T10:41:25.343Z


2,677 monkeypox infections were reported in Germany, and another man died in Peru. And meanwhile three US states have declared the so-called "State of Emergency". What does that mean?


Enlarge image

Monkeypox vaccination in Los Angeles: So far, 5800 cases of monkeypox have been reported in the USA

Photo: Ringo Chiu / ZUMA Wire / IMAGO

California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in the US due to the spread of monkeypox.

This move will help respond to the rising number of cases, coordinate vaccinations and launch awareness campaigns, Newsom said.

The states of New York and Illinois had previously declared states of emergency.

In the United States, around 5,800 cases of monkeypox have been reported in almost every state.

In California there were 827 cases on Monday.

Fight the stigma

The so-called State of Emergency enables the state government to accelerate state aid for municipalities or counties.

The declaration enables the governor to make the necessary resources immediately available - in this case, for example, the monkeypox vaccination, the necessary medical staff and the infrastructure.

"We continue to work with the federal government to secure more vaccine doses, increase awareness of the risk of contagion and stand with the LGBTQ community to fight stigma," Newsom said in a statement.

Monkeypox is a viral infection that is usually mild and is mainly transmitted through close physical contact.

Symptoms include fever, headache, and skin rashes, which usually start on the face and spread to the rest of the body.

The disease has been spreading worldwide since early May.

The World Health Organization (WHO) had declared the highest alert level in connection with the global health emergency on July 23.

Since the outbreak began earlier this year, six people have died from the infection, five of them outside Africa - all in the past three days.

The first fatality was reported in Brazil, two in Spain, a 22-year-old man died in India, and now one fatality has been reported in Peru.

It was a 45-year-old man who had suffered septic shock, according to the Machala Movil newspaper.

Almost all of the deceased had previous illnesses.

In general, the mortality rate for the variant currently circulating in Europe and America is estimated to be low.

The infection usually subsides after a few weeks.

2,677 cases of monkeypox were reported in Germany on Monday.

With around half of the cases, Berlin is by far the hotspot in Germany.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) currently estimates the risk for the general population to be low, and it is still mainly men who have sex with men who are affected.

At the beginning of the week, however, it became known that two young people (15 and 17 years old) were also infected with the virus.

Hospital society calls for better education

The German Hospital Society (DKG) and World Medical President Frank Ulrich Montgomery spoke out in favor of better education about monkeypox on Tuesday and warned against stigmatizing sufferers.

"We have to be clear that education and prevention are particularly important now and that early access to diagnostic and therapeutic options is essential," said Deputy DKG Chair Henriette Neumeyer to the newspapers of the editorial network Germany.

"The stigmatization of sick people must be counteracted as a matter of urgency, since only then is effective containment possible," Neumeyer continued.

The goal must be to stop the further spread in order to protect vulnerable groups in particular, such as people with weak immune systems.

"Infections must be recognized quickly, and we urgently need to expand the range of vaccinations for risk groups."

»No further vaccine orders planned«

The federal government has meanwhile made it clear that it does not want to order any more monkeypox vaccine doses for the time being.

"Further vaccine orders are currently not planned," a spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Health told the RND newspapers.

"Currently only the vaccine Jynneos from the company Bavarian Nordics is available for immunization against monkeypox," she explained further.

"The current challenge is that the global demand for the vaccine exceeds the supply and the manufacturer's ability to deliver is temporarily limited."

The German Aidshilfe recently called for one million vaccine doses against monkeypox in Germany.

The federal government has so far ordered only a quarter of this number.

kry/AP/AFP

Source: spiegel

All tech articles on 2022-08-02

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