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IDI forms task force to prevent monkeypox outbreak in Indonesia
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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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s monkeypox cases continue to increase globally, Indonesia’s largest group of doctors has created a task force dedicated to combating the virus, saying they are ready to aid the government in preventing an outbreak in the country, which has yet to report any infections.
The new task force, formed by the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI), includes up to 25 doctors from at least six different medical organizations, including the Indonesian Society of Internal Medicine (PAPDI) and the Indonesian Society of Dermatology and Venereology (Perdoski).
These doctors, according to task force head Hanny Nilasari, will be further divided into subdivisions focused on different tasks, including a research division, a disease-monitoring and control division as well as a publication-and-education division.
“We hope that [Indonesia] will not be reporting any cases, but we have to be ready. Once it happens, our priority is to ensure [widespread] access to laboratories and to medicines,” Hanny told a press briefing on Tuesday.
“Principally, the task force and IDI are ready to assist the government in any way we can.”
IDI’s head of communicable-disease control-studies Agus Dwi Susanto said the formation of the task force followed a World Health Organization declaration on July 23 that the monkeypox virus is a public-health emergency of international concern -- the highest alarm the global health authority can sound.
Read also: WHO declares monkeypox outbreak global health emergency
