Monkeypox is spreading in Germany – but slowly. The capital is particularly affected.

According to data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), monkeypox has now been confirmed and reported in 80 people in Germany. The institute spoke on Tuesday on its website of evidence from nine federal states.

Since the Friday before Pentecost, the number of diseases recorded by the RKI has increased by 15. It also says: “As far as is known, most of those affected do not become seriously ill.” According to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Sunday, the disease has now been detected in around 30 countries where the virus does not otherwise circulate. There are several hundred cases.

Eleven Berlin patients in the hospital

In Germany, the virus infection has so far been confirmed particularly frequently in Berlin: According to the latest available data from Friday before Pentecost, the Senate Department for Science, Health, Nursing and Equal Opportunities already reported 48 cases. Of these, eleven patients were admitted to a hospital.

After the first evidence in this country, a report by the Federal Ministry of Health said that party events “where sexual acts took place” in Berlin are also considered places where people were exposed to the virus. Such celebrations had also taken place in the Canary Islands.

“Since the infection is likely to occur via contact with the mucous membranes, close physical/sexual contact with different people or strangers should also be avoided as far as possible,” advises the Berlin health administration. Safer sex rules such as the use of condoms should be observed, it said.

Compared to smallpox, which has been eradicated since 1980, monkeypox is considered a less serious disease. According to the RKI, the pathogen is usually transmitted from person to person through close physical contact. Experts assume that the outbreak can be contained. The risk to the general public is still considered to be low. 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.