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Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (archive photo): »It is not a pleasant illness.
We need to curb this.
We don't want it to get stuck either."
Photo: Sina Schuldt / dpa
Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach expects the first vaccine doses against monkeypox to be given in the first two weeks of June.
"40,000 units should come in the first two weeks of June, then 200,000 units after that," said the SPD politician on Sunday in the ARD program "Report from Berlin."
A corresponding contract has been signed and the company is still waiting for its response.
"But I assume that we will have this vaccine very soon," said Lauterbach.
Then a vaccination concept should also be developed.
The minister stressed again that he does not expect a new pandemic from this virus.
"I don't think monkeypox poses a threat in terms of a pandemic," Lauterbach said.
Nevertheless, one must curb the spread of monkeypox.
'Nevertheless, it's not a pretty disease.
We need to curb this.
We don't want it to get stuck either."
Lauterbach had already announced earlier this week that Germany had secured "up to 40,000 doses" of smallpox vaccine.
The vaccine, called Imvanex, is approved for monkeypox in the United States, he said.
It is about being prepared for any vaccinations that may be necessary for contact persons of infected people.
Monkeypox is endemic in several countries in West and Central Africa, so it occurs there constantly and frequently.
Recently, however, monkeypox was also found in more than 20 other countries - including Germany and other EU countries as well as Australia and the USA.
Monkeypox is related to smallpox, which killed millions of people every year for centuries until the disease was eradicated in 1980.
However, monkeypox is considerably less dangerous.
Most patients recover within a few weeks, and fatal outcomes are rare.
jso/dpa/AFP