Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach advises quarantine measures in the fight against monkeypox. There should also be a vaccination.
In order to curb the first cases of monkeypox in Germany, an ordered isolation of at least 21 days should generally be recommended for infected people. That said Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) on Tuesday on the sidelines of the German Doctors’ Day in Bremen. “In the early phases of an epidemic, you have to react hard and early.” The recommendation was developed together with the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
The “urgent recommendation” also applies to contact persons of infected people to go into quarantine for 21 days. “We want to be prepared if the events spread.” In addition, there should be possible ring vaccinations “around the contacts of the infected”. Germany has ordered 40,000 doses of a vaccine that is already approved in the United States. It is not yet clear whether the vaccine has to be used in this way and whether it can also be used in children.
RKI President Lothar Wieler and Klaus Reinhardt, President of the German Medical Association, also took part in the press conference on the sidelines of the German Medical Association.
Anyone can contract monkeypox
Several federal states have already reported evidence of infections, including Saxony-Anhalt, Baden-Württemberg, Berlin and Bavaria. Samples from numerous other people are being analyzed, and authorities are also looking for contact persons who have been proven to be infected.
Even if the infections recorded worldwide currently primarily affect men who have had sex with other men: transmission is generally possible through close contact and contaminated materials. In contrast to Corona, for example, transmission via the air hardly plays a role.
At the beginning of May, a case of monkeypox was detected in Great Britain – according to experts, the pathogen was already circulating in many countries. According to health authorities, the virus usually causes only mild symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle pain and skin rash.
However, monkeypox can also have severe courses, and fatal illnesses are possible in individual cases. The consequences of surviving an infection can be scarring and, rarely, blindness.
Source: Stern
