Ministry Confirms One Case of Monkeypox Found in Jakarta

Jakarta – The Indonesian Health Ministry confirmed one case of Monkeypox found in Jakarta. This was the result of local transmission, as the sufferer had no history of overseas travel. 

"The patient has no history of foreign traveling. It is a local transmission case," the ministry's Head of the Communication and Public Service Bureau Siti Nadia Tarmizi informed in Jakarta on Tuesday.

According to Tarmizi, the DKI Jakarta Health Service is still tracing cases of six to seven people, who had come in close contact with the patient. 

Apart from that, related parties are also investigating the possibility of case transmission by domestic travelers.

"We are still tracing any transmission from the close contact history of domestic travelers," she said. 

Tarmizi remarked that the Monkeypox patient is still undergoing treatment at one of the hospitals in the local area.

"The patient is being treated in good conditions. The patient is now experiencing fever along with lesions, such as scabs, papules, and vesicles, like smallpox," 

According to Tarmizi, Monkeypox has no longer been categorized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).

"We treat it like a normal disease,"

Earlier, the Health Ministry's Directorate of Health Surveillance and Quarantine confirmed that one Indonesian national was detected with monkeypox in Jakarta on October 14, 2023.

With the discovery of this new case, there are currently two cases of monkeypox in Indonesia after the first was discovered on August 20, 2022.

In general, the number of confirmed cases of monkeypox worldwide has reached 90,618, with a death toll of 517 cases from 115 countries.

The United States (US) is the country that reports the most number of cases, while China, Thailand, and Japan dominate in terms of the most number of cases in Asia.