The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) confirmed that 14 cases of monkey pox were found in Indonesia. The majority of transmission occurs through sexual orientation.
Case of monkey pox (monkey pox) re-discovered in Indonesia. Monkey pox is a rare zoonotic disease caused by infection with the monkeypox virus.
In an online press conference, the Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, said, “In Indonesia as of October 26 2023 there have been 14 confirmed cases, two probable, and nine suspects.”
Maxi explained that most of the confirmed cases of monkey pox were found at the age of 25-29 years, as much as 64 percent, while the rest were at the age of 30-39 years. He added that all 14 people confirmed to have monkeypox were male and the transmission occurred through sexual orientation.
READ ALSO: WHO: Monkey Pox is No Longer a World Health Emergency
Most of them experience symptoms such as skin lesions appearing accompanied by fever, swollen lymph nodes, sore throat, rash, muscle aches and difficulty swallowing.
“12 of them had comorbidities human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and syphilis, but there was also one person with hypertension,” explained Maxi.
The first case of monkey pox in Indonesia was discovered on August 20 2022 with one person confirmed. On July 23 2022, the monkey pox case was declared a PHEIC or global health emergency and ended on May 11 2023. However, since October 13 2023, Indonesia has again reported findings of monkey pox cases.
READ ALSO: Minister of Health: Transmission of Monkeypox is not as easy as COVID-19
“Last year we had one case. Then this year in October the case of monkey pox repeated again. This year there was a lot of transmission,” said Maxi.
In dealing with cases of monkey pox in Indonesia, the Ministry of Health has made a number of efforts ranging from tracking the discovery of active cases in all health facilities, conducting epidemiological investigations, preparing reference laboratories, to reporting real time and reporting to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In addition, “Vaccinate vulnerable groups such as close contacts and people with HIV. “The target number is 477 people in accordance with vaccine availability and will start on October 23 2023,” concluded Maxi.
Epidemiologist from Australia’s Griffith University, Dicky Budiman. (Photo: Private Dock)
Meanwhile, epidemiologist Dicky Budiman said that Indonesia had not completed and failed to trace the close contacts of people confirmed to have monkey pox, so this case was discovered again.
“If contact tracing not finished, yes treatment in the case of vaccination it fails. Plus another failure was in quarantine isolation because the combination of all of that could reduce the spread of monkey pox cases. Moreover, this happens in closed groups, even though the behavior is high risk. If this doesn’t work, we tracingDon’t be surprised if the case spreads silent,” he told VOA.
Dicky considers the case of monkey pox in Indonesia to be an epidemic, even though it occurs in certain population groups.
“The risk group is almost the same as HIV. Future trends will be like HIV and continue to grow in these at-risk groups. The strategy could mimic HIV control programs. This can actually be cut off and can heal as before, but this is the key contact tracing“, quarantine isolation, vaccination, and risk communication literacy so that risk groups change (behavior) to safer sex,” he stressed. [aa/ka]
2023-10-26 17:14:48
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