Does the virus change? Four more cases of monkeypox confirmed in UK

The most important news in the BRIGITTE ticker

What moves the world? What moves the BRIGITTE editors? In this ticker we summarize the most important news for you in May.

May 18, 2022

Monkeypox is on the rise

A total of seven cases of monkeypox have been recorded in the UK, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said on Monday. The latest four cases are men who are believed to have contracted the disease in London. There have been no trips to countries where the disease is endemic, and there is also no connection between the four sick people and those already infected. It is the West African variant of monkeypox, which is milder than the Central African one. The current cluster of cases is unusual, said Susan Hopkins, senior medical adviser to the UKHSA. The authority is currently tracking the contacts of the infected. Due to the increased number of infections, monkeypox is considered a potential global threat.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) is now also sensitizing doctors in Germany to the virus infection. Given the cases in the UK, monkeypox should also be considered when unclear smallpox-like skin lesions appear without the affected person having traveled to specific areas. Monkeypox is a rare zoonotic virus. Monkeypox is usually contracted by eating bushmeat – the meat of African wild animals – or by close contact with primates, rodents, African wild squirrels or, in very rare cases, infected humans. The infection usually begins with fever, headache, body aches and exhaustion. After one to four days, a rash develops along with the blisters and pustules typical of smallpox.

However, recent cases from the UK suggest the virus may be changing. The first case is said to be due to an infection in Nigeria, but since the contact of the currently infected cannot be traced, this could mean that human-to-human transmission is the cause. Patients with symptoms are contagious if they come into close contact until the smallpox has completely healed and the scabs have fallen off. A report by the RKI states that the viruses can also be transmitted through contact with bodily fluids and that sexual transmission of smallpox viruses is therefore possible. Infection through droplets is also possible.

May 11, 2022

Maria Alyokhina flees from her home country disguised as a delivery woman

Pussy Riot activist Maria Alyokhina has often come into conflict with the Putin government. Most recently, she was under Russian house arrest because of an Instagram post. Despite multiple arrests and repeated allegations, the activist of the punk band Pussy Riot remains in her native Russia. Now, however, the Putin critic managed a spectacular escape. According to her lawyer, Alyokhina left Russia even though she was under police guard. According to the Interfax agency, the Putin critic is no longer on Russian state soil, according to the “Spiegel”.

According to the New York Times, she managed to escape with the help of friends. She is said to have disguised herself as an employee of a food delivery company. The newspaper posted a selfie via Twitter showing Alyokhina in a green uniform, masked with a scarf and hat, the hood pulled down over his face and carrying a thermal backpack for groceries on his back. An acquaintance drove her to the border with Belarus and then reached Lithuania after about a week. It took her three attempts to cross the Belarusian border.

An acquaintance helped her that an unnamed European country issued her travel documents. These were handed over to her in Belarus. “It sounds like a spy novel,” Alyokhina told the New York Times. Despite the adversity, she hopes that she will be able to return to Russia at some point. The reason for her escape is said to have been an announcement by the authorities that said that her house arrest should be converted into a stay of several weeks in a penal colony.

May 10, 2022

The 1.5 degree mark could be reached within the next 5 years

Heat waves in India and Pakistan are pushing people there to the limit – dozens have died from heat stroke. Temperatures in the Arctic have never been so high. According to the World Weather Organization (WMO), there is almost a 50 percent chance that by 2026 the average annual global temperature will be more than 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels for the first time. This means that in the five-year period from 2022 to 2026, the temperature will rise above 1.5 degrees for at least one year.

This assessment does not have to represent a permanent state. According to the WMO, if the number of degrees rises above 1.5 in one year, this does not necessarily mean that it will remain so for the coming years. On average, however, experts expect that temperatures will continue to rise.

In 2015 it was still considered practically impossible that the 1.5 degree mark would be reached within five years. Seven years ago, the international community agreed in the Paris climate agreement to limit permanent warming to well below two degrees and if possible below 1.5 degrees Celsius. According to the WMO’s preliminary climate report, the average temperature was already 1.1 degrees above the pre-industrial level last year. The final value will be published on May 18, 2022.

For this and the next four years, the experts assume an average temperature of between 1.1 and 1.7 degrees above the pre-industrial level. For this year, the meteorologists expect that it will be drier in southwestern Europe and southwestern North America than the average for the years 1991 to 2020. In contrast, it is likely to be wetter in northern Europe, the Sahel zone, northeastern Brazil and Australia.

May 6, 2022

Dozens dead from heat stroke

47 degrees Celsius – that’s how hot it is in India and Pakistan at the moment. It’s very unusual this early in the year. In the western Indian state of Maharashtra, 25 people have died from heat stroke since the end of March, a state spokesman announced, according to “Zeit Online”. There have not been so many deaths from the heat for more than five years. Most of the victims lived in the countryside. The temperatures are constantly above 40 degrees. In the eastern Indian state of Odisha, 43.2 degrees were last measured. According to official information, hundreds of people have already been treated for heat-related health problems in the Bay of Bengal. A 64-year-old died of heat stroke.

The heat not only affects the human body, but also partially paralyzes the electronics. Power outages are common in some parts of India, leaving fans and air conditioners inoperable. Scientists have attributed the early onset of hot temperatures to climate change. According to the researchers, more than a billion people in India and Pakistan are at risk from the extreme heat. The heat waves are becoming more frequent, hotter and they start earlier in the year. Australia and South America only experienced record temperatures in January, and in March around 40 degrees more were measured in Antarctica than would otherwise be expected at this time of year.

May 3, 2022

RKI recommends reducing the isolation time to 5 days

The prescribed isolation for infected people can usually end after five days in the future – but a negative test is “urgently” recommended, according to the new guidelines published by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on Monday evening. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach confirmed that the isolation should continue to be ordered by the health authorities – even if they are already often reaching their limits.

In the future, contact persons of infected people should be strongly recommended to reduce contacts for five days and to isolate themselves if possible. So far, infected people have had to be isolated for ten days, after seven days you can test yourself free with a negative test if you have been symptom-free for 48 hours. For contact persons, the length of the quarantine is regulated according to the respective vaccination status.

Infected people who are still positive on day five of infection should test themselves daily until the test is negative. If the test is still positive on the fifth day, then the isolation period applies beyond the five days, according to Lauterbach. The isolation does not end automatically after five days. For employees in the healthcare and nursing sectors, free testing after five days should be mandatory and not just recommended.

The federal states are now determining how the RKI’s recommendation will be implemented. Lauterbach made it clear that most federal states should also implement this directive. Several countries have already announced new regulations.

May 2, 2022

Corona pandemic: No deaths reported for the first time

The number of corona infections is falling. The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) reported 4,032 new infections within 24 hours. That is a total of 16,052 fewer cases than on Monday a week ago. The nationwide seven-day incidence falls from 666.4 to 639.5. For the first time since September, the RKI has not reported any new deaths. According to information from “Zeit Online”, 24.86 million people in Germany have been infected with the corona virus since the beginning of the pandemic. 135,960 people have died related to the virus.

However, the current data should be treated with caution, because the data situation is partially incomplete. So there could still be late registrations. The problem: The test capacities and health authorities are at the limit. Contacts can only be traced to a limited extent. Many infections are often no longer confirmed by a PCR test in a laboratory – these are then missing from the official statistics.

Sources used: zeit.de, faz.de, rnd.de, spiegel.de, Spektrum.de

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That was the news in April.

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Bridget