The good news: K1 contact persons only have to be isolated if they show symptoms. However, anyone who develops symptoms within 21 days must be in quarantine. Symptoms include high fever, headache and muscle pain, exhaustion and very often swelling of the lymph nodes.
“No one needs to be afraid of immediate isolation if they come into contact with monkeypox. In principle, you are only isolated if you have been in close contact with a symptomatic case of monkeypox and you have symptoms yourself,” Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) is quoted as saying in the “Krone”.
But if it does get caught, you have to expect a long break. According to the regulation, the quarantine only begins when the last crust of the disease-typical pustules has fallen off the skin – which can take up to four weeks.
A distinction is also made between suspected, probable and confirmed cases. Suspected cases are people who meet at least one of the epidemiological criteria, have a fever or a rash of unknown origin and show two or more non-specific symptoms within 21 days of the last contact (in relation to the epidemiological criteria).
Probable cases are patients with a rash of unknown cause, one or more other monkeypox symptoms, and one of the following additional items: These include a positive laboratory test result for orthopoxvirus infection, a relevant travel history, an epidemiological link to a confirmed or probable case, or multiple or anonymous sexual contacts within the past 21 days. Probable cases are also people with a corresponding rash. Finally, confirmed cases are those found in a laboratory by either a monkey pox-PCR test or by an orthopoxvirus-specific PCR test and confirmed by nucleotide sequencing.
