The Ministry Of Health's Message To Monkeypox Patients: We Need Very Openness

Illustration of body temperature detectors to anticipate the entry of the monkeypox virus at Juanda Airport in Surabaya in Sidoarjo, East Java. (Between-Umarul F)

JAKARTA - Director General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) Maxi Rein Rondonuwu asked monkeypox patients or monkeypox to be open to the government regarding their activity history. The disclosure of the people who were confirmed in the monkeypox case, said Maxi, was needed to map the transmission of the case. "We really need openness from these positive groups, who they are in touch with," said Maxi during a virtual pes conference, Kamsi, October 26. From this disclosure, the government can directly conduct contact tracing to examination of people who had been in contact with the confirmed case. "So if they are open, it is very easy for us to do tracing. Where is the last contact, when. But if we wait it will be difficult," said Maxi. In 2022, the government recorded 1 case detected in August and has now recovered. Meanwhile, in 2023, there were 13 cases recorded in Indonesia from October 13 to October 26. Now, the transmission of cases of monkeypox this year is a local transmission. In contrast to one case last year that was infected from a patient in the Netherlands. Until now, Maxi admitted that his party did not know who had the first case of monkeypox that re-emerged this year. Allegedly, there was one person who had experienced symptoms of monkeypox in August 2023. However, the government could not check because the person concerned was reluctant to be tested. "There is one probable case. We see that Agustus already has symptoms, but we did not take samples and it was a bit difficult to find this person," he said. "The first he's been abroad, back and forth from Singapore. But we haven't confirmed it yet because he's in the probable category. He's had symptoms and had contact with the second case, but he doesn't want to be sampled," added Maxi.

Currently, the government is making vaccination efforts to suppress the spread of monkeypox or monkeypox in Jakarta. The monkeypox vaccination targets the most risky population, especially men who have had or have the same-sex orientation.