On Saturday, the German and Swiss authorities each reported one case. The first occurrence of monkeypox had already occurred in Germany on Friday. There are now infections in at least eight European countries as well as in Australia, Canada and the USA.
Monkeypox is a rare viral disease caused by the monkeypox virus. They mainly occur in Africa, but rarely elsewhere. The infectious disease is transmitted from animals, presumably rodents, to humans (zoonosis). Human-to-human transmission is also possible. Since the beginning of May 2022, the virus has been spreading from person to person in Europe for the first time without an epidemiological connection to West or Central Africa.
Mostly mild gradients
Symptoms of monkeypox in humans include fever, headache, muscle aches, and a rash that often starts on the face and then spreads to other parts of the body. Most people recover from the disease within a few weeks, and death is rare. Most of the cases currently under investigation are mild, according to Hans Kluge, regional director for Europe at the World Health Organization (WHO).
New viral disease is spreading
A new viral disease is spreading worldwide: more and more countries are reporting infections with monkeypox. Anyone who falls ill suffers from skin rashes, fever and pain. North America, Australia and parts of Europe are already affected. There are no known cases in Austria yet.
According to current scientific knowledge, the virus spreads less easily from person to person than the Sars-CoV-2 coronavirus, for example. According to the current status, close physical contact is required for transmission, which is why the German Robert Koch Institute (RKI) assumes that the outbreaks will remain limited. A risk to the health of the general population is currently assessed as low. However, further cases are expected.
Party summer could accelerate spread
The recently detected infections are atypical because most of those affected have not traveled to West or Central Africa, where the disease is endemic, Kluges said in the statement. It is also striking that most of the infections initially discovered were found in homosexual men. The fact that the cases are found across Europe suggests that the virus has been passed on for a while. Kluge feared that broadcasts could accelerate in the summer season with mass events, festivals and parties.
The Spanish authorities are currently investigating the assumption that Gay Pride parties on the holiday island of Gran Canaria could have been a possible source of infection for the infections. This was reported by the newspaper “El Pais”, citing sources in the health sector. About 80,000 people from Spain and many other countries took part in the “Maspalomas Pride” from May 5 to 15, the newspaper reported.
The WHO has called for all contacts of infected people to be traced. According to the WHO, clinics and the population must be made aware of the need to have an unusual skin rash examined by specialists. In addition, guidelines for containment are currently being developed.
The Netherlands already imposed a reporting obligation on Saturday. Doctors would have to inform the authorities if they suspected an infection with the monkeypox virus.
Preparations in Austria
Austria is also preparing for possible cases. If the worst comes to the worst, contact tracing should be ready to go at the beginning of next week, the APA learned from the Ministry of Health on Friday. “Currently, case definitions and delimitations are being developed in order to be able to implement adequate case and contact person management as part of a reporting obligation.” A decision as to whether monkeypox should be one of the notifiable diseases in the future and whether infected people also have to be quarantined requires uniform international ones Requirements.
Coordinations are ongoing between the WHO and the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Laboratory PCR tests could also be used to detect monkeypox.
Sensitized by CoV
There are several assumptions as to why monkeypox is apparently increasing and spreading right now. On the one hand, the renewed increase in travel “after Covid-19”, after travel was previously much less possible or sometimes not possible at all due to the fight against the pandemic, could contribute to this. On the other hand, the authorities, but also the media and the population, are probably more sensitive to zoonoses and their possible consequences as a result of their experiences with the coronavirus pandemic – like SARS-CoV-2, monkeypox is a disease that jumped from animals to humans.
Anyone who has symptoms themselves should be examined by specialists in infectious diseases. Suspicious cases should be isolated, tested and notified as soon as possible, and two-way contact tracing should be carried out.
Smallpox eradicated by vaccination campaigns
Monkeypox is a disease caused by a virus. The pathogen was first detected in monkeys in a Danish laboratory in 1958 – hence the name. Experts suspect, however, that the pathogen actually circulates in squirrels and rodents, monkeys are considered “false hosts”.
Smallpox, caused by a virus from the same group, used to spread great terror. A large proportion of those affected died from the infection. The smallpox disease has been eradicated since 1980 following vaccination campaigns.