6 Cases of Monkeypox Now Confirmed in Luxembourg

On Friday 8 July 2022, the Health Directorate announced that an update on the evolution of the monkeypox virus infection in Luxembourg will be provided every Friday.

Up to 5 July 2022, in 33 countries and areas in the European region, a total of 5,949 cases of monkeypox have been reported to the health authorities at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO), including 5,265 laboratory confirmed cases (https://monkeypoxreport.ecdc.europa.eu/).

In Europe, the first known case had a symptom onset date of 17 April 2022. The majority of cases were detected in people aged between 31 and 40 (2,214 cases out of total 5,258 cases - 42%) and male (5,209 cases out of total 5,230 cases - 99.6%). Of the cases with known HIV status, 40% (364 out of 917) were HIV positive. The majority of cases presented with rash (2,684 out of 2,793 - 96.1%) and systemic symptoms such as fever, fatigue, muscle aches, vomiting, diarrhea, chills, sore throat or headache (1,931 out of 2,793 - 69%) . No fatalility due to monkeypox infection is reported yet.

Up to and including 7 July 2022, six cases of monkeypox have been confirmed in Luxembourg.

The epidemiological and clinical characteristics of these cases are very similar to the cases reported at European level. None of the confirmed cases required hospitalisation. The six confirmed cases have no epidemiological link between themselves and were all exposed to the monkeypox virus abroad.

The health directorate has advised people to protect themselves against the virus and to avoid risky situations in order to limit the spread of the virus. Protective measures include washing hands regularly with soap, avoiding sharing bed linen and towels with infected people or those who have been in contact with infected people, and use of protection in case of sexual contact.