Ministry of Health Explains Reasons for Higher Distribution of Monkey Pox Cases This Year

JAKARTA - Director General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Maxi Rein Rondonuwu explained that the cause of the spread of monkeypox cases this year was higher than last year.

It is known that in 2022 the government recorded one case that was detected in August. Meanwhile, in 2023, there will be 13 cases recorded in Indonesia from October 13 to October 26.

Maxi said that in handling monkey pox cases in Indonesia, the government immediately moved to carry out contact tracing to suppress the spread, both in cases found in 2022 and 2023.

"So, every time there is one case, we carry out close contact tracing. In fact, last year several groups were searched, up to more than 10 we looked for friends (of monkeypox patients)," said Maxi in a virtual press conference, Thursday, October 26.

Maxi is of the opinion that the low number of monkey pox cases last year was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic which still limited community activities.

Meanwhile, currently the status of the corona virus pandemic has been lifted and there are no longer any restrictions.

"Indeed, at the same time as COVID, perhaps certain groups have not yet been met, perhaps they still rarely meet," he said.

Then, the transmission of monkey pox cases this year was local transmission. The sufferer has no history of foreign travel. This is different from one case last year which was infected by a sufferer in the Netherlands.

"Currently, the cases that have occurred have been local transmission, and the tracing capabilities are the same. Because now the spread is local transmission, I think the cases will increase every day, that will definitely happen," he explained.