Further cases of monkeypox have occurred in Germany. A vaccine could be distributed soon. All information in the news ticker.
- New name for monkeypox virus: Experts call for a “non-discriminatory” designation
- WHO convenes emergency committee: Due to the global outbreaks, a coordinated response is needed
- Cases of monkeypox are piling up: More than 200 infections have been confirmed in Germany
Update from Friday, June 17, 10:15 a.m.: Rhineland-Palatinate is preparing for the vaccine. The federal government wants to deliver smallpox vaccine, which can then be used against monkeypox. The German Press Agency announced when and how much will be distributed to the individual countries at the conference of health ministers, which will take place next week.
According to the federal government, there should be around 40,000 doses of the vaccine across Germany. There is currently a confirmed case of monkeypox in Rhineland-Palatinate. Since the symptoms appeared in May 2022, the person has been in isolation for 21 days in the Palatinate, in the Germersheim district.
Monkey pox: Numbers in Germany are increasing
Update from Wednesday, June 15, 3:30 p.m.: The Robert Koch Institute has announced the current number of cases. A total of 263 cases of monkeypox were reported in Germany. Cases of monkeypox first appeared in Germany in May 2022.
Monkeypox infections have been reported in these states:
- Baden-Wuerttemberg
- Bavaria
- Berlin
- Brandenburg
- Hamburg
- Hesse
- Lower Saxony
- North Rhine-Westphalia
- Rhineland-Palatinate
- Saxony-Anhalt
- Schleswig-Holstein
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) wants to follow up the call from 30 scientists to find a new name for the monkeypox virus. The current name is “discriminatory and not stigmatizing”. Proposals for a new name should be made as soon as possible, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced in Geneva.
Monkeypox: WHO calls emergency committee
First report from Tuesday, June 14: Geneva – The cases of monkeypox are piling up worldwide. In Germany, the RKI has already reported more than 200 infections for June 14th. Now the World Health Organization (WHO) also wants to act. She convenes an emergency committee because of the monkeypox cases in numerous countries. The expert council decides whether it is – as is also the case with corona – is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
The emergency committee is scheduled to meet on June 23, according to the organization and its leader Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Tuesday (June 14). This type of committee brings together professionals who are particularly familiar with the disease in question. The declaration of emergency is the highest level of alert that the WHO can impose. Such a declaration has no direct practical consequences, but is intended to wake up the member countries. An emergency has been in effect since the end of January 2020 due to Sars-CoV-2.
Monkeypox spread: WHO convenes emergency committee
As of Tuesday, the WHO had reported more than 1,600 cases of monkeypox worldwide and nearly 1,500 suspected cases from 39 countries. So far, 72 deaths have been reported from African countries. WHO is investigating a possible death from monkeypox from Brazil.
The concern of the WHO relates to three areas, said Tedros: The virus is behaving unusually, more and more countries are being affected and a coordinated response is therefore necessary. However, Tedros emphasized that the experts on the emergency committee are looking at the problem and have not yet decided whether they consider it necessary to declare an emergency. “We don’t want to wait until the situation gets out of hand,” said WHO specialist Ibrahima Socé Fall.
exhaustion |
Swollen lymph nodes |
Sore throat |
Cough |
Sudden fever up to 40 degrees |
Severe headache and body aches |
Source: RKI |
Monkeypox in Germany: Federal government orders smallpox vaccine
The risk assessment of the RKI in Germany continued on Tuesday: “According to current knowledge, the RKI assesses a risk to the health of the general population in Germany as low.” The virologist Gerd Sutter from the Institute for Infectious Medicine and Zoonoses at the LMU Munich shared Request that the numbers in this country are “no surprise” and “not frightening”. According to the current state of knowledge, the virus is transmitted, as expected, practically only through direct contact. He described the rate of spread as “relatively slow”. With the vaccination of contact persons or specific target groups “it should still be possible to limit the outbreak,” he expects.
The Federal Ministry of Health expects a delivery of 40,000 doses of smallpox vaccine for Wednesday (June 15), which can be used against monkeypox. The federal government is making the vaccine available to the federal states, a ministry spokesman said. The Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) announced last week that the drug would be recommended for certain groups, such as contact persons of infected people. The first proof of monkeypox in this country became known a good three weeks ago.
Due to the risk situation so far, the WHO does not consider mass vaccinations to be necessary, according to a technical guide on Tuesday. The vaccines developed against smallpox, which was eradicated in 1980, may offer some protection against monkeypox, but so far there have been hardly any studies on this. The WHO called on all countries to share smallpox vaccine stocks equitably with others. (asc/slo/kas/dpa)
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