More, Monkeypox In Indonesia Becomes 14 Cases

The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) building in Jakarta. (Antaranews)

JAKARTA - Director General (Dirjen) of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Maxi Rein Rondonuwu said, currently there are 14 active cases of monkeypox or monkeypox in Indonesia.

"In Indonesia to date or October 26, 2023, 14 cases have been confirmed," he said at a press conference that was followed online in Jakarta, Thursday.

In addition to a number of confirmed cases, Maxi also revealed that there were 17 negative or discarded cases, two probable cases, and nine suspects.

"It is probable that there is contact with the patient, but the laboratory sample has not been taken. Meanwhile, the suspect has the same symptoms, the sample has been taken, and we will wait for the laboratory results this afternoon or tonight," he said.

Maxi also revealed that the characteristics of the fourteen people who were confirmed to have monkeypox were recorded as nine people aged 25-29 years or 64 percent, and the rest were 30-39 years old, and all of them were men who were infected and/or transmitted through sexual contact.

Furthermore, he mentioned that 12 of them have the orientation of homosexuals or male likes (NGOs), as well as one bisexual and heterosexual person each.

"Everything is symptomatic. Most have lesions, fever, swelling of lymph nodes, pain when swallowing, muscle aches, and chills," he said.

In addition, Maxi said that the transmission of monkeypox was also accompanied by a number of comorbidities, including 12 people having HIV disease, five people having syphilic diseases, and one person having hypertension, where one patient can have more than one comorbidity condition.

He appealed to people in various regions in Indonesia to be aware of monkeypox, because currently there are cases that have occurred outside DKI Jakarta, after previously cases of monkeypox were only detected in the area.

"If it's outside DKI, Tangerang already exists. Can it happen in other areas? Of course it can," he said.

For this reason, the Ministry of Health has made a number of efforts to deal with monkeypox, including tightening surveillance by conducting epidemiological investigations, examining Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) on confirmed cases, and notifying the World Health Organization (WHO).

In addition, said Maxi, his party has also handled therapeutically for confirmed people, vaccinated 477 targets since October 23, and collaborated with various parties in communicating risks to minimize the transmission of monkeypox to more people.

He also emphasized the importance of Clean and Healthy Life Behavior (PHBS) and having sex safely.

Therefore, Maxi said that the openness of the NGO group to health workers is needed to trace this case, so that the handling of monkeypox is maximized.

"We really need this positive group openness, if they are open, it will be very easy for us to do tracing," said Maxi.