Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Monkey pox cases in Indonesia show an increasing trend. In 2022, there was only one positive case of monkey pox in Indonesia, but as of October 25 2023, the Ministry of Health had reported 14 confirmed cases.
In fact, a number of epidemiologists, or experts in the field of investigating the pattern and spread of a disease, predict that the number of confirmed monkeypox patients could reach 3,600 cases by the end of this year.
So, what is driving the increase in cases of monkey pox in Indonesia?
The Director General of Disease Prevention and Control (P2P) of the Indonesian Ministry of Health, Maxi Rein Rondonuwu, said that the culprit behind the increasing trend of monkey pox in the country was mobility which had returned to normal after the pandemic ended.
Please note, according to the Ministry of Health’s report, all monkey pox patients in Indonesia are men who have a history of same-sex sexual relations.
“Last year it was still Covid…, maybe the group had not yet met, it was still rare,” said Dr Maxi, in an online press conference, Thursday (26/10/2023).
Furthermore, he said that the routes of transmission of monkey pox in Indonesia were all local transmission. This also makes disease transmission faster.
“Now that there is local transmission, I think there will definitely be an increase in cases every day.”
Although the increase in monkeypox cases cannot be avoided, Maxi said that the monkeypox virus variant detected in Indonesia was relatively mild.
“All patients are in stable condition, within 1-2 weeks the lesions will start to disappear. If their condition is good, we can send them home,” he added.
[Gambas:Video CNBC]
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