Indonesia announces its first case of Monkeypox

Jakarta [Indonesia], August 20 (ANI): Amid a global rise in Monkeypox cases, Indonesia announced its first case of the viral disease on Saturday.
A 27-year-old patient returned home to Jakarta on August 8 and started to feel feverish six days later with rashes on his body, including his face, palms and feet Tuesday, Indonesian Health Ministry spokesperson Mohammad Syahril said as quoted by Xinhua news agency.
“The tests he did on August 18 concluded that he was infected with monkeypox,” Syahril told a virtual press conference.
The patient has mild symptoms and is currently self-isolating at home under the supervision of the Jakarta Health Service.
The medical team is tracing the patient’s close contacts.
Indonesia is increasing awareness of monkeypox, adding 10 polymerase chain reaction laboratories at the country’s entrances at airports and ports. According to the ministry, around 10,000 monkeypox vaccines are in the process of being procured, to be given to those with symptoms, according to Xinhua.
On July 23, the World Health Organization declared the escalating global monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “I have decided that the global monkeypox outbreak represents a public health emergency of international concern.”
Speaking at the press conference on the report of the 2nd meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee regarding the monkeypox outbreak, Ghebreyesus said that he convened the emergency committee, a month ago, to assess whether the monkeypox outbreak represented a public health emergency of international concern.
He further said that during that meeting, the committee came to the conclusion that monkeypox was not represented as a public health emergency of international concern.
“At that meeting, while differing views were expressed, the committee resolved by a consensus that the monkeypox outbreak did not represent a public health emergency of international concern,” the WHO chief had said.
Ghebreyesus noted that at that time, as many as 3,040 monkeypox cases were reported from 47 countries and till now, over 16,000 cases were reported from 75 countries and territories. He further said that five people have died from that virus.
“In light of the evolving [monkeypox] outbreak, I reconvened the committee on Thursday of this week to review the latest data and advise me accordingly. I thank the committee for its careful consideration of the evidence, and issues,” the WHO chief said.
“So in short, we have an outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly, through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little and which meets the criteria in the International Health Regulations,” he added.
The WHO chief noted that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions except in the European region where we assess the risk as high. (ANI)