Two children become ill – Mpox alarm: School closed as a precaution

The students of a special school in Rösrath will receive distance learning until Friday. This preventive measure applies until the Christmas holidays, which last until January 6 in North Rhine-Westphalia.

To avoid close contact between students and thus prevent further spread of Mpox, the school classrooms remained closed, the district justified the step. The health department and the school management decided to take the preventive measure after intensive discussions with the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and other specialized institutions in view of the student population, which needs to be particularly protected.

Family with infection in quarantine
Four members of a family living in the Rheinisch-Bergisch district had previously been infected with the new variant of the Mpox virus, the so-called clade 1b. Among them are two children. The family is in quarantine. So far the course of the disease has been mild. After the infections became known, the health department identified and informed contact persons from the school and professional environment.

Virus is transmitted from skin to skin
The symptoms of Mpox include a typical skin rash and often general symptoms such as fever, headache and muscle aches. Fatal outcomes are rare. Mpox – previously called monkeypox – is not very contagious. “Close physical contact is necessary for the transmission of Mpox,” the RKI writes. The virus is mainly transmitted through close skin-to-skin contact. In mid-October, the first case of the Mpox variant 1b was discovered in Germany in a man in Cologne.