21st August 2022 – Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) has confirmed that the first monkeypox case is found in DKI Jakarta, Indonesia on Saturday (20/8). The patient is a 27-year-old man who recently travelled abroad.
The Ministry of Health did not specify which country the patient travelled from. However, they explained that the patient experience fever and enlargement of the spleen. Health workers in Jakarta have responded to the symptomatic patient with check-ups, including PCR tests. After two days of examination, the patient was declared positive for monkeypox.
According to the Ministry of Health, the patient did not experience any severe symptoms. Though some smallpox rashes appear on his face, palms, feet, and parts of his genitals.
The patient only has light symptoms and is currently in a non-life-threatening situation. Thus, he does not need to be in an isolation room but, still needs to undergo self-isolation at his home.
The Ministry of Health announced that the government is currently providing 10 thousand doses of monkeypox vaccine. Currently, the vaccine is still processing, especially to receive a recommendation from the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM).
Other than that, the government has tightened entry to the country through the air and the sea, especially from countries that have reports of monkeypox cases. The Ministry of Health has also appealed to officers at airports and ports to be on alert for passengers that showing symptoms of monkeypox.
The first non-endemic case of monkeypox was discovered in a British man in May after returning from Nigeria. Currently, at least 15 countries have confirmed monkeypox cases, including the United States, Germany, England, Singapore and others.
WHO has renamed monkeypox to Clade to prevent stigmatization. Monkeypox was first discovered by experts in 1958, the name came from smallpox that infected colonies of monkeys kept for research.
The first monkeypox case found in humans is in Kongo, on a 9-year-old boy in 1970.
