Not Only Jakarta-Bogor, Ministry Of Health Expands Monkeypox Research Laboratory In Several Areas

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Health has expanded the network of genomic sequencing research laboratories for monkeypox in ten major cities in Indonesia.

"All Environmental Health Engineering Centers (BTKL) are used for monkeypox laboratories. There are in Medan, Palembang, Kalimantan, Banjarmasin, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Jakarta, Ambon, Manado and Makassar", said the Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu in Jakarta, Antara, Tuesday, August 9.

Utilization of the BKTL facility as a Monkeypox virus research laboratory has increased the number of laboratory networks that previously only provided two units, respectively at the Central Laboratory for the Study of Primate Animals in Bogor and the Infectious Disease Research Laboratory, Prof. dr. Sri Oemijati in Jakarta.

According to Maxi, the Directorate General of Pharmacy and Medical Devices at the Ministry of Health has supplied the needs for laboratory test materials in the form of reagents to all BKTL for the Monkeypox virus test.

"We are expanding the laboratory because the number that existed previously was small, then we considered the priority with several international entrances, such as in Bali, Jakarta, and Manado", he said.

Maxi added that until now there have been zero cases of Monkeypox in Indonesia since 15 suspects were reported to have tested negative for monkeypox based on the analysis of laboratory workers.

"I haven't updated the diagnosis, what skin disease or other causes the patient to be suspicious. We continue to carry out surveillance at the entrance and in the community", he said.