Stuttgart (dpa / lsw) - Vaccination against monkeypox can start in Baden-Württemberg. The Ministry of Social Affairs announced on Wednesday in Stuttgart that the 2,980 federal vaccine doses would be delivered to the pharmacies of the university clinics this week. Then practices that primarily treat people with HIV could call up vaccine doses there.
The background is that, according to the current state of knowledge, the monkeypox virus is mainly transmitted from person to person through close physical contact. According to the World Health Organization, 99 percent of those affected are men under the age of 65 who have sex with men. In general, however, anyone who has close physical contact with an infected person can become infected. So far, 87 monkeypox infections have been confirmed in 25 cities and counties in the southwest.
The ministry continues to assess the risk to the general public as low. The first case of monkeypox in the southwest was detected at the end of May and affected a man from the district of Ortenau. It was a travel returnee from Spain.
Monkeypox is considered a less serious disease compared to smallpox, which has been eradicated since 1980. Experts had warned of the virus spreading, for example at upcoming festivals and parties. 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.
