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Health Ministry increases vigilance as monkeypox cases multiply
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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 was a thin section image from a human skin sample. On the left were mature, oval-shaped virus particles, and on the right were the crescents, and spherical particles of immature virions. (AFP/Cynthia Goldsmith)
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s cases of monkeypox infection in Jakarta have multiplied over the past 10 days, the Health Ministry is on alert for the virus as epidemiologists highlight the importance of tracing.
Indonesia reported six confirmed cases of monkeypox virus since mid-October, an unprecedented increase compared with 2022, when the country recorded the first and only case throughout the year in Jakarta.
The second case was found on Oct. 13, the third on Oct. 19, and the other four simultaneously on Oct. 21. All of the patients are men aged 25 to 35 in Jakarta, according to a press release from the Health Ministry on Monday.
Monkeypox, a zoonotic disease originating from Africa, was initially considered a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization in 2022. It was medically addressed as “mpox” by the WHO to remove any racial stigma.
The virus causes rashes and fever that last two to four weeks and can occasionally (in 3-6 percent of cases) lead to death.
The WHO dropped the emergency status in May of this year following the declining rate of the spread of the virus worldwide.
Indonesia recorded its first confirmed mpox case in August 2022 in Jakarta, detected in a 27-year-old man who contracted the virus overseas. The patient recovered after a month-long isolation in the hospital.
