Jakarta (ANTARA) - Director General of Disease Prevention and Control of the Health Ministry Maxi Rein Rondonuwu stated that the result of laboratory test on the oropharynx sample of a monkeypox suspect in Central Java was negative.
Rondonuwu here on Thursday afternoon expounded that taking the oropharynx sample is one of the procedures for diagnosing monkeypox in suspects. However, he said, the process is continued with checking the skin lesion fluid, so that the analysis will be more accurate.
"The first sample from the oropharynx tested negative, but we asked to take it again from the skin lesion fluid," he said.
Meanwhile, during an interview session at the Vice President's Palace on Thursday, Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin stated that one suspect of monkeypox in Pati District, Central Java, was identified on Tuesday, July 19, 2022.
"On July 19, (the suspect) had the symptom of fever; while on July 21, he was taken to the hospital; and on July 23, there were spots (lesion fluids observed on the suspect)," Sadikin revealed.
According to the minister, the genome sequencing method is needed to distinguish smallpox from monkeypox viruses, which generally took about three to five days after sampling.
Furthermore, Sadikin said his side had conducted tracing for close contacts of a monkeypox suspect in Central Java.
"We have traced the others (the close contacts), and we have taken the blood serum," he stated.
Based on the Health Ministry's report, a total of nine monkeypox suspects were detected in Indonesia, and all of them tested negative where they experienced smallpox.
In the Southeast Asian region, three countries have reported monkeypox cases as of July 2022: Singapore, with 11 confirmed cases; Thailand, with two cases; and the Philippines, with one case.
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