Wiesbaden (dpa / lhe) - Hessen has received 2000 doses of vaccine against monkeypox. They would be made available to the public health service, the Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday on request. The 24 Hessian health authorities could retrieve the vaccines from the state warehouse as needed. They organized a vaccination on their own responsibility. So far, 23 cases of the viral disease have been reported in Hesse (as of June 28). The newspapers of the VRM had previously reported about it.
When it comes to the question of who is vaccinated, Hesse is based on the criteria of the Standing Vaccination Committee at the Robert Koch Institute (Stiko). The commission recommends vaccination for certain risk groups and people who have had close contact with infected people.
In recent years, monkeypox has recurred in some African countries. Since May, infections have been increasing in other, mainly European, countries that are not related to trips to Africa.
Monkeypox is considered a less serious disease compared to smallpox, which has been eradicated since 1980. According to the RKI, the incubation period is 5 to 21 days. Symptoms (including fever and skin rash, for example) usually go away on their own within a few weeks, but can lead to medical complications and, in very rare cases, death in some people.
