A four-year-old girl has been infected with monkeypox in Germany, it is the first small child of which this is known in this country. The child has no symptoms, his infection was only discovered because of close contact with a symptomatic family member. An infection without symptoms? You could shrug your shoulders and say "so what?!"
But you shouldn't. Monkeypox is now taken very seriously in many countries around the world. At the end of July, the World Health Organization (WHO) already declared the outbreak of the disease a public health emergency with international consequences and thus classified it in a category with Ebola (2014 and 2019), Polio (2014), Zika (2016) and Corona (2020). A national emergency was declared in the United States a week ago.
In Germany, the spread of the infectious disease is apparently not taken very seriously. The infections are usually mild – and so far it seems that bisexual men and men who have sex with men are the most likely to be infected.
However, the case of the small child shows that the situation may have changed unnoticed: the virus could already be circulating much further than the reported numbers show. And mass distribution increases – as everyone has known since Corona – the risk of mutations. A previously harmless virus could become more dangerous.
Experts also warn that a monkeypox epidemic in the autumn and winter months must also be avoided for another reason: if many people become infected, this could lead to many hospital admissions.
Having to take care of corona and monkeypox patients at the same time would be too much for doctors and nurses. Such a twindemic would once again overload the healthcare system.
Vaccination of risk groups - i.e. both men who have sex with men and people with weak immune systems - should now be done quickly. But that has not yet been considered in Germany. In Berlin, the hotspot of infections, there is a lack of vaccine, and funds are also scarce in Hamburg. Many are already going abroad to get vaccinated.
The fact that the WHO and the USA are declaring a state of emergency shows foresight. This is the only way to quickly release funds to optimize the smallpox vaccine and bring it to the most vulnerable groups.
In response to the spread of monkeypox, the WHO has declared a global public health emergency. It doesn't happen that often "that this warning level is declared," says virologist Prof. Klaus Stöhr in the WELT interview. "If you have skin lesions, you should definitely see a doctor."
Source: WORLD
