Australia's fight against the deadly monkeypox virus will be boosted, with a large influx of new-generation vaccines to begin arriving next week.
And ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr has lashed commentary framing monkeypox as a "gay man's disease", warning society not to repeat mistakes made in the early days of the HIV/AIDs epidemic.
Speaking after a meeting of national cabinet on Thursday, Health Minister Mark Butler revealed the government had secured 450,000 doses of the third-generation Bavarian Nordic vaccine.
The first 22,000 doses will begin arriving over the next week, with 100,000 to reach Australian shores by the end of the year.
Mr Butler described second-generation vaccines currently available in Australia as "essentially" smallpox vaccines which could also be used to fight monkeypox.
Third-generation vaccines were preferred, as they were "far more effective and far more user-friendly" than previous iterations, while producing fewer adverse events.
"We are now one of only a very limited number of countries that have been able to secure supplies, within this highly-contested market, of this third-generation vaccine," he said.
The new vaccines could be used as a post-exposure treatment and to prevent transmission, he said.
The doses will be rolled out in every state and territories, primarily via sexual health clinics.
Training for doctors will be boosted, alongside public campaigns from groups experienced in communicating the threat of sexually-transmitted diseases, like the Federation of AIDs Organisations, Mr Butler said.
Monkeypox was present in 76 countries, including 25,000 cases, outside certain central African nations where it has previously been endemic.
It was declared a communicable disease incident of national significance in Australia last month, with 53 confirmed and probable cases currently active in the country as of Tuesday.
But the disease has spread far more rapidly across North America, where the United States has reported over 6,000 total cases, and Europe, where Spain reported its first deaths this week.
The Health Minister said work, which has been ongoing since May, had helped "avoid the worst elements you've seen" internationally.
Asked how widely he expected the disease to spread in Australia, Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said: "I'm not going to pick a number".
"But I think the important thing is that all the work that's been done since May in Australia, and the added benefit of the vaccine, will continue to help us to control the epidemic here," he said.
"I'm very confident that will happen."
Professor Kelly said the disease had "mainly" spread among men who have sex with men internationally, and "exclusively" among that cohort in Australia.
He warned while the disease was previously "easy to spot" in areas it was endemic, it was materialising in "quite specific" new ways during the current outbreak.
"[It] often affects the genital areas. It can cause proctitis, a very painful condition, as well as other ways that it presents," he said.
"It generally does not cause severe disease ... [but] it can affect other people who are immunocompromised children, pregnant women. If it gets into those populations, it can be quite severe."
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said he was concerned commentary around monkeypox framed it as a "gay man's disease".
Mr Barr stressed the virus was transmitted by "close personal contact", and anyone with multiple sexual partners was at risk.
"I do not want this to go down the path of HIV/AIDs early on, where all the public commentary was that this was some sort of niche disease that only impacted gay men. That is not the case," he said.
"This can't be how this is presented to the community."
- With Jasper Lindell