The first monkeypox case in Indonesia has been identified. A young man who recently came from abroad contracted this virus. To prevent monkeypox, President Jokowi asked the Ministry of Health to tighten health checks at Indonesia’s entry gates.
President Jokowi in Jakarta, Tuesday (23/8/2022), said, “For places with high interaction, then the entrance gates to our country, will really be strictly checked.”
Jokowi added that he had ordered the Ministry of Health to prepare a monkeypox vaccine as soon as possible.
Although there have been positive cases found in Indonesia, President Jokowi asked the public not to panic immediately.
“But we also don’t need to panic too much because the transmission is through direct contact, not through ‘droplets’. I think the most important thing is our readiness to deal with it,” said Jokowi.
Previously, on August 20, 2022, the Ministry of Health (Kemenkes) announced the findings of the first confirmed case of monkeypox in Indonesia in a 27-year-old male patient who lives in DKI Jakarta.
It is known that the patient experienced health complaints a few days after returning to Indonesia, after a tour to several countries in Western Europe, on August 8, 2022.
According to the DKI Jakarta Health Office, three people were close contacts in the first confirmed case of monkeypox. All three are in good health and have no health complaints.
The symptoms of monkeypox generally begin with fever, headache, and swollen lymph nodes found in the neck, armpit, or groin.
In addition, these common symptoms can be accompanied by complaints of muscle aches, backaches, and prolonged fatigue.
After one to three days since the fever, symptoms will be followed by the appearance of a rash on the skin in several parts of the body, in the form of red spots like smallpox, small blisters filled with clear fluid or filled with pus which then become scabs and fall off.
Monkeypox or monkeypox in addition to being transmitted through direct contact from sick animals to humans can also be transmitted between humans or through objects contaminated by viruses.
However, the transmission of monkeypox between humans is not easy. For human-to-human transmission, it can be through close contact with droplets, body fluids, or direct skin-to-skin contact with rashes, including through sexual contact.
Furthermore, transmission can also occur through indirect contact with contaminated objects, such as clothes, bedding, towels, or unwashed utensils/plates.
