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Health ministry urges vigilance following first mpox death
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A health worker holds up an information poster about mpox on Nov. 1, 2023, at a community health center (Puskesmas) in Kedaung, South Tangerang, Banten. The Health Ministry is urging people to avoid direct contact with infected patients or animals to prevent the transmission of mpox. (Antara/Sulthony Hasanuddin)
T
he Health Ministry has urged the public to remain vigilant against mpox after Indonesia recorded its first fatality since the disease was discovered in the country last year.
The ministry reported on Thursday that a patient who had contracted mpox had died in Cipto Mangunkusumo hospital (RSCM) in Salemba, Central Jakarta, due to "severe comorbidities".
Lie Khie Chen, an internist at the RSCM, said the patient was not admitted to the hospital for mpox, but for small intestine obstruction.
"He had been treated in several hospitals for three to four weeks, but ultimately was referred to the RSCM to undergo an operation to remove a blockage in his small intestine," Lie said in a statement on Thursday.
He added that the patient's condition was initially stable after his operation but severe lesions caused by his mpox combined with a weakened immune system due to AIDS had led to "a lung complication” that eventually killed him two weeks after the procedure.
The virus causes rashes and fever that last two to four weeks and can occasionally lead to death. The disease, formerly known as monkeypox, spreads through direct contact with infectious skin or lesions, including face-to-face, skin-to-skin and respiratory droplets.
Mpox virus variants are referred to as clades: clade I which has a fatality rate of around 10 percent and clade II with less than a 1 percent fatality rate. Most of the mpox cases found in last year’s global outbreak are from clade II. The World Health Organization dropped the mpox emergency status in May of this year following the declining rate of the spread of the virus worldwide.
