Freiburg (dpa / lsw) – From the point of view of the Freiburg virologist Hartmut Hengel, the spread of monkeypox is “significantly underestimated at the moment”. They have at least the potential “to give us headaches in the future,” said the medical director of the Institute for Virology at the University Hospital Freiburg of the “Badische Zeitung” (Saturday). So far, only several thousand cases of monkeypox have been reported worldwide. “But it is wrong to deduce from this that what happened is harmless – because you have to look to the future.” The virus is spread in 70 countries. “It has assumed forms of permanent circulation in some countries, including Europe.”
So far, men who have sex with men have been particularly affected. According to the State Ministry of Health on Wednesday, 87 infections have been confirmed in Baden-Württemberg to date. Almost 3,000 vaccine doses would be delivered to pharmacies in the university hospitals, it said.
“If you wanted to catch the matter, that would mean that you would have to organize consistent vaccination programs worldwide wherever the virus occurs,” explained physician Hengel in the interview. “It’s obviously a huge challenge.” However, it is unclear whether the monkeypox virus will continue to be rampant among men who have sex with men – or whether it can break free of this niche.
Monkeypox is considered a less serious disease compared to smallpox, which has been eradicated since 1980. According to the Robert Koch Institute, the incubation period is 5 to 21 days. Symptoms, which include fever and rash, 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.
On Saturday afternoon – i.e. after the interview was published – the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of monkeypox an “emergency of international concern”. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus declared the highest alert level that the organization can impose in the event of a health threat. Tedros spoke of more than 16,000 confirmed cases worldwide. A committee of independent experts he convened had previously been unable to agree on a common recommendation as to whether an emergency should be declared.
