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Fears grow homophobia may hinder monkeypox fight in Indonesia
Gay-rights activists have called on the Indonesian government to avoid using a language that could further stigmatize the gay community in their public-awareness campaign about the danger of monkeypox.
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This undated electron microscopic (EM) handout image provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention depicts a monkeypox virion, obtained from a clinical sample associated with the 2003 prairie-dog outbreak. It is a thin-section image from a human-skin sample. On the left are mature, oval-shaped virus particles, and on the right are the crescents and spherical particles of immature virions. (AFP/Cynthia Goldsmith)
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t is feared that the prevailing homophobia in Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, might derail the government’s efforts to contain the spread of monkeypox, which has infected more than 16,000 people in 75 countries.
Monkeypox is a zoonotic disease that spreads through direct contact with infectious skin or lesions, including face-to-face, skin-to-skin and respiratory droplets. The virus, which originated from Africa, can infect anyone regardless of their sexual orientation, health experts have insisted, dispelling any homophobic notion that it is somehow a “gay disease”.
The current outbreak of the virus, however, is believed to have primarily spread through a network of men who have sex with men. According to a World Health Organization report, out of the 5,500 cases who reported their sexuality, more than 95 percent identified themselves as gay, bisexual or as other men who have sex with men. The report has raised concerns about stigmatization that could further complicate efforts to contain the spread of the virus, which is believed to pose a greater danger to children, the immunocompromised and pregnant women.
Is Indonesia monkeypox-free?
Indonesia, where the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community has in recent decades been a target of state-sponsored persecution, has yet to report a single confirmed case of monkeypox, but concerns have been raised about whether the increasing anti-LGBTQ sentiment may have compromised the government’s ability to conduct surveillance among the high-risk population.
“There is a relatively huge possibility that monkeypox has arrived in Indonesia,” said Dicky Budiman, an epidemiologist from Australia’s Griffith University.
