Monkey pox: Lauterbach advises a 21-day quarantine

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“You have to react hard and quickly”: Lauterbach recommends a three-week quarantine for monkeypox

In order to contain the first cases of monkeypox in Germany, an ordered isolation of at least 21 days should generally be recommended for infected people. That said Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) on Tuesday on the sidelines of the German Doctors’ Day in Bremen. Good contact tracing and caution can get this under control. “In the early phases of an epidemic, you have to react hard and early.” The recommendation was developed together with the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

The “urgent recommendation” also applies to contact persons of infected people to go into quarantine for 21 days. “We want to be prepared if the events spread.” In addition, there should be possible ring vaccinations “around the contacts of the infected”. Germany has ordered 40,000 doses of a vaccine that is already approved in the United States. It is not yet clear whether the vaccine has to be used in this way and whether it can also be used in children.

At the same time, Lauterbach emphasized that the development should be taken very seriously. It is not yet known why international outbreaks were different this time than in the past. It is possible that the pathogen or the susceptibility of people have changed. If outbreaks are contained early on, it can be achieved that the pathogen does not settle in people. At the same time, Lauterbach emphasized that what is currently being experienced with monkeypox is “not the beginning of a new pandemic”. It is a known pathogen and we know how to combat it. RKI President Lothar Wieler and Klaus Reinhardt, President of the German Medical Association, also took part in the press conference on the sidelines of the German Medical Association.

Anyone can contract monkeypox

Several federal states have already reported evidence of infections, including Saxony-Anhalt, Baden-Württemberg, Berlin and Bavaria. Samples from numerous other people are being analyzed, and authorities are also looking for contact persons who have been proven to be infected.

Even if the infections recorded worldwide currently primarily affect men who have had sex with other men: Transmission is generally possible through close contact and contaminated materials. In contrast to Corona, for example, transmission via the air hardly plays a role.

At the beginning of May, a case of monkeypox was detected in Great Britain – according to experts, the pathogen was already circulating in many countries. According to health authorities, the virus usually causes only mild symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle pain and skin rash.

However, monkeypox can also have severe courses, in individual cases fatal diseases are possible. The consequences of surviving an infection can be scarring and, rarely, blindness.

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DPA