All three Lithuanians diagnosed with monkeypox arrived from Germany

VILNIUS – Three monkeypox cases confirmed in Lithuania are epidemiologically unrelated yet all three infected persons visited Germany.

“Three monkeypox cases currently detected in Lithuania are epidemiologically unrelated”, Galina Zagrebneviene, chief specialist of Health Promotion Division of the Public Health Department of the Ministry of Health, said during a press conference on Friday.

“All three visited Germany before getting sick,” she said.

The Health Ministry reported earlier this week that monkeypox was confirmed in men in the 20-29, 30-39, and 40-49 age groups.

All three are receiving outpatient treatment.

Specialists do not have evidence that those persons have ever been vaccinated against pox.

Pox vaccination was mandatory in Lithuania up until 1980.

Lithuania expects to receive 1,400 monkeypox vaccine doses this month but the vaccine will not be available to all who want it.

“All people who want to be vaccinated will definitely not be given a jab. I repeat – persons who are in very close contact and at high risk of being exposed [to monkeypox] in hotspots must be vaccinated at most within four days, as must healthcare and laboratory workers if there might have been a high-risk exposure at work accidentally,” the ministry’s representative said.

A total of seven contacts related to the three monkeypox cases have been identified already and none of them has exhibited any symptoms so far.

Lithuania’s National Public Health Laboratory has performed eight monkeypox tests so far, with three of them returning positive results.