The Ministry Of Health Traces Close Contacts Of Suspected Smallpox Monkeys In Central Java

Minister of Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin at the Vice Presidential Palace, Jakarta, Thursday (4/8/2022). (AMONG)

JAKARTA - Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, said that his party had conducted a close contact tracing of a patient with the status of suspected monkeypox in Central Java.

"We have traced the others, we have taken their blood serum, yes, close contacts, because this must be with infectious contacts", he said at the Vice Presidential Palace, Jakarta, as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, August 4.

The suspect patient is currently undergoing treatment in an isolation room at a private hospital in Central Java for the healing process.

"There are still suspicions and this is the same as what happened yesterday when nine suspects were tested, so they were not 'monkey pox'. One suspect was in Pati Regency, Central Java. On July 19, 2022, he had symptoms of fever, on July 21 he was taken to the hospital, and on July 23 freckles appear", he said.

He explained that to find out whether a person has really contracted monkeypox, a "genome sequence" test is needed to determine whether he or she has the Delta or Omicron variant.

"Now the existing data, the specimen was taken on July 29. Now the 'genome sequence' is being carried out at the Ministry of Health, I think it should be out in a day or two because the 'genome sequence' takes about three or five days to find out what the variant is", said Budi.

At least 76 countries have reported cases of monkeypox worldwide with a total of 22,485 confirmed cases.

In ASEAN, there are three countries reporting cases of monkeypox until the end of July 2022, namely Singapore with 11 confirmed cases, Thailand (2), and the Philippines (1).