JAKARTA - Minister of Health (Menkes) Budi Gunadi Sadikin revealed that the smallpox vaccine is still effective in protecting against the risk of transmission of monkeypox or Monkeypox.
"Monkeypox is still in the same genus as former smallpox which was Smallpox. So I said to the experts, if we were vaccinated against smallpox in the 1970s or born like me, the elderly have immunity and (the vaccine, ed.) smallpox different from COVID-19 which goes down every six months", he said after the launch of the SatuSehat Platform at the Raffles Hotel, Jakarta, Tuesday. July 26.
He explained that the smallpox vaccine has the ability to protect the beneficiaries for life.
"So, the antibodies are there for life. For those who have been vaccinated against smallpox, they are relatively protected, then from the treatment, there is an antiviral as well", he said.
Budi said the smallpox vaccine is one of the three efforts by the Ministry of Health to control monkeypox, which has the potential to become an epidemic in the world.
The disease control method, which is currently infecting 16,000 patients in 75 countries, is implemented in Indonesia through the enforcement of health protocol discipline, the use of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tools, and the procurement of medicines.
"The World Health Organization (WHO) advises the same, by maintaining prokes, maintaining surveillance, if possible, preparing vaccinations and treating them", he said.
The Ministry of Health has provided 500 units of monkeypox PCR reagents for surveillance needs at all entrances to Indonesia, such as airports and ports.
The Ministry of Health is also trying to bring in additional imported PCR reagents to be distributed to all provinces in Indonesia this month.
Regarding the monkeypox vaccine, he said, until now it is not yet available in Indonesia because it is only available in the United States and Russia. However, the Ministry of Health is trying to bring in drugs to cure monkeypox patients in the country.
"Now we are in the process of bringing the drugs to Indonesia", he said.
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Budi appealed to the public not to worry excessively about the risk of transmission of monkeypox in the country.
The reason, he said, is that monkeypox is relatively easier to detect by health workers with the naked eye through symptoms that appear on the surface of the skin, such as small fluid-filled spots on the hands and face, changes in skin color to redness, to swelling in the groin area.
"So you don't have to worry, this will only be contagious after there are symptoms, in contrast to COVID-19 which can be transmitted before there are symptoms, while monkeypox has physical symptoms, then it is contagious and requires physical contact with the liquid", he said.
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