DW Contacts have been informed after several members of a family were found to have contracted mpox. Two school-age children are among those infected. A school in the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia was closed as a precaution on Monday after two children were found to be infected with the mpox virus.
The mpox clade 1b variant was found to be present in four members of a local family. They have been placed in quarantine.
The two children attend school for children with special needs in the town of Rösrath, not far from the city of Cologne.
Following the infection report, the school was closed and lessons will be carried out online until Friday, authorities said.
“The pupils of a special school in Rösrath will be taught via distance learning from now until Friday inclusive,” a statement said, after talks with Germany’s disease control and prevention agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
“After intensive discussions with the RKI and other specialist institutions, the health department and the school management have decided to take this preventive measure with a view to protecting the student body in particular.”