In Germany, some people are infected with monkeypox. Will this disease become a new pandemic? Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach sees no general danger for the population. The pathogen is known and it is known how to fight it. The virus is transmitted through close contact, not through the air. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle pain and skin rashes.
The federal health ministry recommends that infected people be isolated for at least 21 days. Close contacts and household members should also be quarantined. Most people recover from the disease after a few weeks.
Germany has ordered 40,000 doses of a smallpox vaccine. This vaccine “can prevent infection with the monkeypox virus and attenuate the outbreak of the disease in those already infected,” the Health Ministry writes. Some protection is offered to those born in Germany (in the FRG before 1975 and in the GDR before 1982) by the vaccination against true smallpox (variola) that was common at the time. The viruses are similar.
See https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/suche/affenpocken-2043160
Further answers to questions can be found at
https://www.rki.de/SharedDocs/FAQ/Affenpocken/affenpocken_gesamt.html
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In Berlin ist der Sitz des Parlaments und der Regierung Deutschlands. Foto: tünews INTERNATIONAL / Mostafa Elyasian.
