Ministry Of Health: Monkeypox Cases Like Iceberg Phenomenon

Health workers posted posters of the socialization of monkeypox disease in a wall magazine at the Kedaung Health Center, South Tangerang, Banten/DOK ANTARA

JAKARTA - Head of the Communication and Public Service Bureau of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Siti Nadia Tarmizi said that the case of monkeypox or Mpox in Indonesia is like an iceberg phenomenon whose basis is not yet known. He expressed this in response to the opinion of experts who said that it was predicted that more than a thousand Mpox cases had occurred in Indonesia. "It's the same with diseases like HIV, there is always an iceberg phenomenon," he said when met in Jakarta, Antara, Tuesday, November 28. Nadia assessed that this opinion could be appropriate, because previously the Ministry of Health had predicted around 3,000 Mpox cases would occur in Indonesia this year. "This means that yesterday's forecast is rather than estimation, with the calculation of the transmission rate forecast for about 3,000 Mpox cases, currently we only get 59," he said. Furthermore, Nadia revealed that another thing that has not been found is the case of Mpox in women. It is known, of the 59 Mpox cases in Indonesia, all of them occur in men with the majority of male sexual-oriented sex (LSL). However, some of them are bisexual oriented, which means that there is a possibility of transmission in women that has not occurred until now. For this reason, Nadia said that her party always ensures that contact tracing of relatives of confirmed patients suffer from Mpox, in order to find cases after cases of the disease in Indonesia. If special symptoms are found such as red rashes from relatives of patients being traced, he continued, then his party will take specimens for further investigation to confirm whether the patient's relatives are suffering from Mpox disease.

In addition, his party is also intensifying community education efforts related to Mpox, to prevent contact that can cause transmission of the disease. "But we don't need to worry because this disease is not like COVID-19, yes, the speed of transmission is very high and in one day it can be tens of thousands (of transmission)," he said.