The willingness to vaccinate in the country is great. However, not everyone who wants to can currently be vaccinated against monkeypox. According to the Ministry of Health, this should change. The authority wants to distribute almost 20,000 doses of the vaccine.
In the fight against monkeypox, 19,500 doses of vaccine are to be distributed in Germany next week. The monkeypox vaccine is to be delivered to the federal states, according to the Federal Ministry of Health in Berlin. According to the government, the available vaccine is currently not sufficient to meet the demand in practices, especially in hotspots. The federal government already delivered 40,000 cans to the federal states in June and another 5,300 in July. Further deliveries were expected during the year. The federal government had ordered a total of 240,000 doses of the vaccine in contracts.
According to Minister Karl Lauterbach, the spread of the disease should be prevented by all means. “This includes good contact tracing by the health authorities, comprehensive education and also the vaccination of people who are particularly at risk,” says the SPD politician’s ministry. With the procurement of the vaccine and the targeted information of particularly vulnerable groups, Germany is ahead in a European comparison.
The government’s queer commissioner, Sven Lehmann, said: “The willingness to be vaccinated, especially among men who have sex with men, is high.” Many specialist practices in particular have been vaccinating and educating for weeks. “Especially in the hotspots, the demand is significantly higher than the supply,” said Lehmann. In some cities, it was difficult for people who wanted to be vaccinated to get appointments. Lehmann called on the countries to distribute the new cans quickly.
After the international monkeypox outbreak in May 2022, 3405 cases of infection have been reported in Germany so far. At the end of June, the Standing Committee on Vaccination recommended the smallpox vaccine Imvanex, among others, for people at increased risk.
