German Ministry of Health: Monkeypox is not very dangerous for humans

Germany became one of 15 countries where cases of monkeypox infection were detected. It is believed that the viral disease is transmitted mainly through sexual contact between men, but this has not been scientifically confirmed.

The German Ministry of Health takes the monkeypox outbreak seriously and is in constant communication with the state authorities, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and the World Health Organization ( WHO ), although it does not consider the health of the general German population to be seriously threatened.

Monkeypox: Patients are isolated, quarantine is not introduced

By noon on Monday, May 23, four laboratory-confirmed cases of monkeypox had been reported in Germany , all four (one in Munich, three in Berlin) were of the relatively benign West African variant of the disease. But Sebastian Gülde from the German Ministry of Health believes that there will be more such cases, given that we are talking about an infectious viral disease.

 

“At the moment, however, it appears that the increased risk of infection occurs primarily through sexual contact between men,” Gulde told a government press conference in Berlin. The German official did not cite any data of any research confirming this hypothesis.

The RKI estimates that most patients have a relatively mild illness , and monkeypox is only contracted through very close human contact. “Therefore, we believe that this outbreak will remain localized, and the health risk to the general population is assessed as low,” said Sebastian Gulde. People infected with monkeypox are being isolated, but the decision to quarantine those who have had contact with them, as is done in some other countries, has not yet been made in Germany, according to Gulde.

WHO: 92 confirmed cases of monkeypox worldwide

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cases of monkeypox infection have already been detected in 15 states, most of all in Portugal, Spain and the UK: from 21 to 30 in each country. Between 10 and 20 suspected cases of this disease have been reported in Canada and Spain. Worldwide, we are talking about 92 patients with a confirmed diagnosis and 28 with an unconfirmed one.

“According to currently available information,” the WHO website says, “cases have mostly, but not exclusively, been identified among men who have sex with men.”

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