Global Public Health Emergency Geger, Mpox Not New COVID

Illustration - Monkeypox or Mpox. (ANTARA/Shutterstock/am)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) of the Republic of Indonesia announced data on confirmed cases of monkeypox or Mpox in Indonesia reaching 88 cases throughout 2022-2024. Will the case of campix be as intense as during the COVID-19 pandemic?

The World Health Organization (WHO) declaredmpox a global public health emergency. This is the second time WHO has issued a similar statement in two years.

The WHO is taking this step following a significant increase in the case of thempox in the Democratic Republic of Congo that is spreading to neighboring countries.

In response to this determination, the Daily Executive (Plh) of the Director General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Yudhi Pramono emphasized that Indonesia will increase vigilance and preparedness to deal with the potential spread ofmpox.

"The Indonesian government through the Ministry of Health increases vigilance and prepares preparedness and response steps to the Mpox which has been re-determined as PHEIC by WHO," said Yudhi.

Monkeypox has returned to news recently after WHO declared the outbreak of thempox in several parts of Africa a public health emergency.

The Swedish public health agency recorded the first case of a more dangerous type ofmpox. Sweden became the first country outside the African continent to report the variant of thempox Clade 1. The person was infected while living in an area in Africa which is currently hit by a major outbreak ofmpox Clade 1.

According to Olivia Wignel, head of Sweden's public health agency, the infected person has received treatment in Stockholm.

"The exposed person was infected while living in an area in Africa which is being hit by a major outbreak ofmpox Klade 1," Olivia told a news conference.

Findings in Sweden are a very worrying development, according to Dr Brian Ferguson, Associate Professor of Immunology at the University of Cambridge. Even so, he said the findings were not surprising because the spread of thempox outbreak in Africa was at its worst.

Monkeypox has killed at least 450 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The disease is rapidly spreading throughout the central and eastern African regions, and scientists are starting to worry about how quickly this new variant of the disease spreads and its high death rate.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus even said the potential for further spread in Africa and its surroundings was very worrying.

Mpox is a skin disease that can be transmitted. Mpox comes from viral infections that cause diseases such as smallpox, and is usually called monkeypox.

Citing Care, monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 at a monkey research laboratory in Denmark. At that time the smallpox outbreak hit a number of monkeys kept in the laboratory for research purposes.

As for humans, this case was first reported in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then, monkeypox has spread in several countries in Africa, and countries in the United States and Asia have also reported cases of monkeypox in humans.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, there are thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths from this disease each year. Children under 15 were worst affected.

WHO calls the two main types of monkeypox, namely Clade 1 and Clade 2. When setting a global health emergency against monkeypox for the first time in 2022, the cause is Clade 2 which is relatively safer.

At that time diseases that spread to nearly 100 countries, including several European and Asian countries, could be controlled by giving vaccines to vulnerable groups.

But the situation is different now. According to WHO, this outbreak was dominated by the much more deadly Clade 1. This variant has killed up to 10 percent of people affected by monkeypox.

One scientist called this new variant the most dangerous.

Amid WHO concerns about the Clade variant which further confirms, Yudhi Pramono in his press conference confirmed that the last case found last June entered Clade 2.

Yudhi added that other patients who were found previously also did not show the Clade 1 variant.

Although WHO declaredmpox a global public health emergency and needs international attention, this disease is not a new COVID-19, according to WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge.

"Mpox is not a new COVID-19, regardless of whether it's Clade 1 smallpox, which is the cause of the ongoing outbreak in East and Central Africa, or Clade 2 smallpox, which triggered an outbreak in 2022 that initially had an impact in Europe and continued to spread there," Kluge said, explaining various variants of the disease.

"Based on what we know, it is mainly contagious through skin-to-skin contact with lesions, including during sex," he continued.

The purpose of issuing a global health emergency statement is so that all countries are alert and ready if the MPX case enters their territory.

Kluge insists WHO knows how to control thempox, including in the European region, including what steps are needed to eradicate its transmission.