An infant in Luxembourg has been infected with monkey pox, according to the country’s health ministry.
The child is “in a stable and not worrying condition,’’ the ministry said on Wednesday evening.
The patient was being isolated. The day-care centre that the child attended would remain open as no other child was currently showing symptoms, the statement added.
People with whom the child was in contact had been informed. The child’s age and gender were not specified.
According to figures from Aug. 10, 41 men in Luxembourg had been infected with the monkey pox virus by then. The average age was 39 years.
In Germany, where more than 3,200 cases had been registered so far, no such infection had been detected in a child.
Symptoms of monkey pox are similar to but less severe than those of smallpox, another pox virus.
Smallpox had been eradicated since 1980.
According to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute (RKI) For Disease Control, the incubation period is from five days to 21 days.
However, symptoms, which include fever and a rash, usually go away on their own within a few weeks, but can lead to medical complications in some people.(dpa/NAN)
